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A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders
and Founderies
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A DISSERTATION UPON English Typographical Founders
And Founderies
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BY Epwarpb Rowe Mores AM,, ASS. With Appendix by ‘ohn Nichols RRR Fe. \ Loo) EDITED BY D. B. UPDIKE a, AGE AGek
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NEW YORK 4 The Grolier Club
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Copyright, 1924, by the Grolier Club of the City of New York
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PREFACE
DWARD Rowe Mores’ “ Dissertation upon Typo- H graphical Founders and Foundertes,” with the notes
added to it by ‘fohn Nichols in 1779, has been, ever since it was issued, an important document in the history of English type-founding and printing; it 1s very often quoted, and its title 1s familiar to students of English typography. Yet as a whole the Dissertation is known to few, partly because of tts rarity, partly because of the discouraging typo- graphical form in which it was cast,—due to mannerisms of abbreviation and type-setting no doubt insisted on by its author,—and finally (to quote a passage prefatory to a famous colleétion of traéiates), because “among the vari- ous Labours of Literary Men, there have always been cer- tain Fragments whofe Size could not fecure them a general Exemption from the Wreck of Time, which the tntrinfic Merit entitled them to furvive.””’
With the present reprint of the Dissertation, it has been thought desirable to include Richard Gough’s contemporary Memoir of Mores, and the notes and the genealogical table of the Mores family that accompanied tt. I have myself con- tributed some supplementary gleanings which illustrate the character, if they do not much enhance the reputation, of our author. Thus these disjetia membra “by uniting together defend themfelves from Oblivion, form a Phalanx that may withfiand every Attack from the Critic to the Chee/e- monger, and contribute to the Ornament as well as Value of Libraries.”
The English translation of the second letter to the Supe- rior of the Convent at Rouen, which so cleverly imitates Mores’ English style, 1s the work of Mr. Francis K. Ball,
of
vi PRERPACE
of Boston. For transcripts of several letters in the British Museum relating to Mores, two of which I have quoted, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Stanley Morison of London.
A full-length figure of Mores in academical dress, stand- ing in a Gothic library, was engraved by Ff. Mynde (an engraver much patronized by Mores) after a portrait by Van Bleek. An entirely different portrait— the head only —in a small oval, framed in a decorative cartouche, was also engraved by Mynde. The portrait in this book is reproduced (without the cartouche) from a copy of the latter print in my possession; and the title-pages from the Specimen and Catalogue are also reproduced from copies belonging to me. The fac-similes of types represent the principal divisions of the Specimen and are grouped as closely as possible to the pages of the Dissertation recording them. The page of “flowers, however, illustrates some paragraphs occurring earlier, that describe their various forms.
While Mores’ eccentric methods of printing the Dis- sertation have been closely followed, I have allowed myself some slight latitude in the typographical arrangement of cer- tain portions — notably in the final synopsis of types, which in the original edition was not printed like similar passages in earler pages, butin type which, up to that point, had been used only for foot-notes. Except for this, the Dissertation and its reprint practically run page for page. The Appendix I have not attempted to confine to the space that Nichols al- lowed for tt, but have set his notes in a larger type, making what may not be very readable, at least more legible.
D. B. U.
The Merrymount Press, Boston June, 1924
Table of Contents
Memoirs of Edward Rowe Mores, D.D., F.s.A. By ‘Richard Gough
Notes supplementary to Gough’s Memoirs of Mores. By Daniel Berkeley Updike
A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies. By Edward ‘Rowe eres, A.M., A.8.8.
Appendix of Notes to the Dissertation. By ‘Fohn Nichols
PAGE
X1X
x
e- ed ato Pid oa
raha
MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR
BY RICHARD GOUGH
DWARD-ROWE Morss, M.A. F.S. A. de- {cended from an antient family, which had been feated from the beginning of the fixteenth century at Great Coxwell*, in the county of Berks, and allied by his grand-mother to that of Rowe, which had been fettled at Higham-Benfted in Walthamftow, in the county of Effex, ever fince the middle of the fame century, was born January 13, 1730, at Tunftall in
*' Thomas Mores.
Francis Mores.= Margaret De la Moor.
Thomas, died Margaret, born Elizabeth, born Dulcibella, died 1654. Nov. 2,1654. June 25,1658. March, 1675.
Another branch of this family was feated at Langford in the fame county, from 1552 to 1602. Excerpta ex Regiftris paroch. p. E. R. Mores, among his Coxwell collections, in the hands of Mr. Gough, who has alfo fix plates engraved at his expence for a hiftory of this parifh.
t Higham-Benfted manor, in Walthamftow parifh, was the feat of the Rowe’s from 1568, when it was purchafed by Sir Thomas Rowe, lord mayor of London that year, who died 1570%, and was buried in Hackney church in a chapel built by him, as was alfo his fon Sir Henry, lord mayor of London 1607, who died 1612, and his grandfon Henry, all fucceffively lords of the manor of Shakle- well. Sufan daughter of the laft Henry married William Haliday,
@ Morant’s Effex, I. 35. He married Mary daughter of Sir ‘fohn, and coufin to Sir Thomas Grefbam ; Robert his younger fon was father to Sir Thomas Rowe am- bafjador from Fames I. to the Mogul and the Porte, who died 1644, and is buried at WF oodford,
alderman
y MEMOIRS
in Kent, where his father was rector for near 30 years.
alderman of London and chairman of the Eaft India company, who died 1623, and was buried in St. Lawrence Jewry with his wife (who died 1645) and two daughters. (Strype’s Survey of London, I. b. 3. p. §7.) Their four monuments, and a view of Higham hall, were engraved at the expence of Mr. Mores, whofe grandmother was of this family.
In the north aile of Walthamftow church isa family vault of the Mores and Rowes, over which are thefe infcriptions on flat ftones:
Here lyeth the body of Mrs. || Catherine Rowe fifter to Mrs. || Ann Mores mentioned on the || adjacent monument; who departed || this life Nov. 10 1737. || She by her laft will & teftament || ordered to be buried near to the || grave of her faid dear fifter, and to || have in- {cribed on her tomb ftone|| the prayer of the humble Publican || Luke xvill. 13.|| God be merciful to me a finner.
On the top of the ftone a quatrefoil in a lozenge. Rowe.
On an oval marble monument againft the fouth fide of the north aile is this inscription:
Near this place || lyeth interred the body || of Miftrefs Anne Mores daugh-||ter of Robert Rowe Efq. the eldeft || furviving fon of Sir ~ William Rowe of || Higham Hill in this parifh Knight. She || was married to Edward Mores of Great || Coxwell in the county of Berks, Gent, by || whome fhe had four children, but of them |] only remains her entirely devoted & af-||fectionate fon Edward Reétor of Tunftall in|| Kent, who in memory of her, the moft tender||and indulgent yet prudent and beft of Mothers||exemplary for all the duties of a truly humble||devout & zealous chriftian, hath ere¢ted||this monument. || She died at the parfonage of 'Tunftall|| aforefaid, Jan. the fifth A. D. MDCCXXIV. aged || LXXVII years & XI days. || Pfalm xxxv. 14. I went heavily as one || that mourneth for his mother.
Here alfo lyes the body of the above named Edward |] Mores who died on the 8" day of April 1740 in Grace || Church ftreet London & whofe efpecial defire || it was to be buried in the fame grave with his || faid deareft mother.
In a lozenge, Mores impaling Rowe.
On a brafs plate fet in ftone againft the wall of the Monox chapel at Walthamftow is this infcription, with the arms of Rowe:
“‘Gulielmus Rowe dé Higham hill in comitatu Effex, generofus, Thomz Rowe militis filius natu tertius, Oxonii in Collegio Mer- ton optimarum artium ftudiis preclare inftitutus cum fumma laude, non folum domi magiftri in artibus adeptus eft dignitatem, fed etiam foris in Germania & Gallia ob f{ummam eruditionem et pietatem, viris eruditis, precipue autem Immanueli Tremellio & Theodoro
Bezz
MEMOIRS x1
years*. He was educated at Merchant Taylor’s School; and admitted a commoner of Queen’s College, Ox- ford, June 24, 1746. While he refided at Oxford, 1746, he affifted in correcting an edition of Calafio’s
Bezz longe chariffimus fuit. In matrimonium duxit Annam Cheyney de Chefham Boys in comitatu Buckingham armigeri filiam. Bene- ficus erat in pauperes, et in omnes pro facultatibus fuis hofpitalis. Pacem et coluit ipfe & aliis ut eam mutuis officiis confirmaret auctor fuit. Quum pecunia ad ufus publicos exigeretur, ne major quam pro rata portione vicinis fuis imperaretur diligenter curavit, et imperate ne tenuiores exhauriri fequeretur bonam partem ipfe diffolvit: de- nique et fuis et alienis vere pietatis & virtutis exemplar propofuit. Demum vite honefte et pie tranfacte parem fortitus exitum, ipfi jucundum, amicis et vicinis luctuofum, Junii 29° die obiit 1596. Thoma patre fatus, Gulielmus Rotis eodem Qui Londinenfi Pretor in urbe fuit, Notus homo patriis, externis notus in oris, Tanta doétrina cognitione fuit. Pacis amans, Pietatis amans, populoque benignus, Cui loculus nullo tempore claufus erat. Natis quinque Pater, natabus quatuor : ifto Commifit moriens offa tegenda folo.
* See, an account of him, p. 58. [‘ History and Antiquities of Tun- “ftall.” ] He married the fifter of Mr. W ind{or, an eminent undertaker,” in Union Court, Broad Street. His father was Edward Mores of Great Coxwell, in the county of Berks, where his grandfather Francis died, and is buried in the chancel, on the fouth wall of which the following epitaph is erected to his and his wife’s memory:
Here lieth the body of || Margret the loveing || wife of Francis Mores of || Great Coxwell Gentleman. || Shee wase the mother of ten|| children, viz. four fonns, || fix daughters, and the || two and twenty child of || Francis Moore of Clanfield in the || county of Oxford, efq. and of || Mary his wife. she deceafed || ‘This life in hope of a better || The eleventh day of Septemllber in the yeare of our || Lord God 1675. .
t Mr. Mores had made a few colleétions for a hiftory of this fchool, and lifts of perfons educated there. A view of it was engraved by Mynde, in 1756, for Maitland’s edition of ‘ Stowe’s Survey,” 1756, infcribed
“Scholz Mercatorum Scifforum Lond. facies orientalis. Negatam “(4 Patronis D. Scholaris, Edy. Rowe Mores, arm. A. M.S. A. 8.”
4 [Used as an equivalent of “ contrafor.” D. B. U.] Concordance
ii MEMOIRS
Concordance*, intended by Jacob Ilivet, a crazy printer, who afterwards aflociated with the Rev. Wil- liam Romaine, and publifhed this Concordance in 4 volumes folio, 174.7. Before he was twenty, Mr. Mores publifhed at Oxford in 4to. 1748, “Nomina & In- “fignia gentilitia Nobilium Equitumque fub Edvardo “primo rege militantium;” the oldeft treafure, as he ftyles it, of our nobility after Domefdayand the Black Book of the Exchequer. He had alfo printed, except notes and preface, a new edition in 8vo. of Dionyfius Halicarnafienfis “de claris Rhetoribus,” with vignettes engraved by Green, the few copies of which were fold after his death. In 1752 he printed in half a 4to. fheet, fome corrections made by Junius in his own copy of his edition of Cedmon’s Saxon paraphrafe of Gene- fis, and other parts of the Old Teftament, Amftelod. 1655; and in 1754 he engraved 15 of the drawings from the MS. in the Bodleian Library. The title of thefe plates 1s “Figure quadam antique ex Ced- “monis monachi paraphrafeos in Genefim exemplari “pervetufto in bibliotheca Bodleiana adfervato delin- “eate;ad Anglo-Saxonum mores, ritus, atque edificia “feculi, preecipue decimt, illuftranda in lucem editee. “Anno Domini Mopcctiv.” Thefe plates are now in the poffeffion of Mr. Gough.
In 1752 he was elected a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and two years after was one of a com- mittee for examining the Minute-books of that foci- ety, with a view to felecting from thence papers proper for publication. {
Being intended for orders by his father, he took
* See his “ Differtation on Founders,” p. 64. t Of whom, fee more in the Anecdotes of Mr. Bowyer, 4to. p. 130.
ft A more numerous committee were appointed for the fame pur- pofe 1762. But ftill the publication lingered till 1770, when the firft volume of the Archzologia appeared. Many valuable Differtations and Communications ftill remain unfelected from the early Minute- books. | the
MEMOIRS XIii
the degrees of B. A. May 12,1750, and M. A. Jan. 15, 1753; before which time he had formed confid- erable collections relative to the Antiquities, &c. of Oxford, and particularly to thofe of his own college, whofe archives he arranged, and made large extracts from, with a view to its hiftory. He had engraved three plates of the Black Prince’s apartments there, fince pulled down, drawn and engraved by that very ingenious artift B. Green. Twenty-eight drawings at his expence, by the fame hand, of antient gates, halls, &c. fince ruined or taken down, are now in the poffeffion of Mr. Gough, as alfo fome collections for a Hiftory of Godftow nunnery, by Mr. Mores, for which a plate of its ruins was engraved, and another of Iffey church*. His MSS. relative to his own Col- lege, with his collections about All Souls College, fell after his death into the hands of Mr. Aftle, who has prefented the former to Mr. Price of the Bodleian Library.
Mr. Mores appears to have affifted Mr. Bilfon in his burlefque on the latter fociety, publifhed in a folio fheet, intituled, “ Propofals for printing by fubfcrip- “tion, the hiftory of the Mallardians,” treating them as a fet of ftupid don vivans; at leaft he may be pre- fumed to have contributed the prints of a cat faid to have been ftarved in their library, and of two antient grotef{que butts carved on the fouth wall of the college, the plates of which were in his poffeffion.
* Other plates engraved at Mr. Mores’ expence were four of an- tique feals, two filver coins of Richard and John, found in digging the foundation of the new town-hall at Oxford. Thefe coins are in- {cribed 10HAaEs - ---- Rev. --- ONETA MERIIARI --- Ici --- Rev. MONETA MERTVN 3; and are now in the hands of Mr. Burrell. A feal found near Canterbury in the poffeffion of Edward Jacob, mayor of Feverfham, 1750; another of Dunfcroft, cell to Roche abbey in the county of York, in the hands of Mr. Warburton; another of William Bate, mafter of St. John Baptift’s hofpital, near the old caftle at Carlifle, in those of Dr. Ducarel.
When
X1V MEMOIRS
When Mr. Mores left the univerfity he went abroad, and is reported to have taken orders; but whether this tradition has any better foundation than his affectation of wearing his academical habit, and calling it that of a Dominican friar, we do not pretend to vouch. It has been faid that he entered into dea- con’s orders in the church of England, to exempt him- felf from ferving civil offices. Thus much however is certain, that in the letters of adminiftration granted to his fon, on his dying inteftate, he is ftyled “the “Rev. Edward-Rowe Mores, D. D.”’ but from what bifhop he received ordination we have not yet dif- covered. On his return to London, he refided fome years in the Heralds’ College, intending to have be- come a member of that Society, for which he was ex- tremely well qualified by his great knowledge and {kill in heraldic matters; but altering his plan, he retired about 1760 to Low-Leyton, in which village he had re- fided fome time before, and while he was churchwar- den there confiderably improved the church. Here, on an eftate left him by his father, he built a whimfical houfe on a plan, it 1s faid, of one in France.
In 1759 he circulated queries for a parochial Hif- tory of Berkfhire, but made no confiderable progrefs. His collections on that fubject are now in the poffef- fion of Mr. Gough.
The Equitable Society for affurance on lives and {urvivorfhip by annuities of 10ol. increafing to the furvivors, in fix clafles of ages from 1 to 10—10 to 20—20 to 30—30 to 40—40 to so— 50 to the ex- tremity of life, owes its exiftence to Mr. Mores. It had been firft fuggefted and recommended in lectures in 1756, by Mr. James Dodfon, mathematical matter at Chrift’s hofpital, and author of the “ Mathematical “Repofitory,” who had been refufed admiffion into the Amicable Society on account of his age; but he dying November 23,1757, before his defign was completed,
except
MEMOIRS ce
except the plan of reimburfement to him and his 54 affociates, Mr. Mores undertook to apply for a char- ter in 1761, but failing of fuccefs, he, with 16 more of the original fub{cribers, refolved to perfevere in eftab- lifhing their fociety by deed. It was hereby provided that Mr. Mores fhould be perpetual! director, with an annuity of tool. He drew up and publifhed in 1765, “A fhort account of the Society,” in 8vo. (of which a feventh edition with additions was printed in 1767), “The Plan and Subftance of the Deed of Settlement,” “The Statutes,” “Precedents of fundry Inftruments “relating to the Conftitution and Practice of the So- “ciety, London, 1766,” 8vo. The “deed of fettlement, “and the declaration of truft, 1768,” “A lift of the “policies and other inftruments of the fociety, as well “seneral as fpecial,” 8vo; but fome difputes arifing between Mr. Mores and the original members of this fociety, he feparated from them that year. There were printed, “Papers relating to the difputes with the “charter fund proprietors in the Equitable Society, ‘“‘by order of a general court held the 3d day of No- “vember, 1767, for the ufe of thofe affured on the “lives of others, who fhall apply for the fame, 1769,” 8vo. This fociety ftill fubfifts, and their office is in Bride-ftreet, near Black-Friars bridge, to which it was removed from Nicholas lane, Lombard ftreet, 1775 *.
* It affures any fums or reverfionary annuities on any lives, for any number of years, as well as for the whole continuance of the lives, at rates fettled by particular calculations, and in any manner that may be beft adapted to the views of the perfons affured: that is, either by making the affured fums payable certainly at the failure of any given number of lives, or on condition of furvivorfhip, and alfo by taking the price of the affurance in one prefent payment, or in annual pay- ments, during any fingle or joint lives, or any terms lefs than the whole continuance of the lives. The plan of this fociety is fo exten- _ five and important, that, if due care is taken, it may prove a very great public benefit. Price on Reverfionary Payments, 1771, p. 128, who propofes fome improvements on this plan.
All
XVI MEMOIRS
All Mr. Mores’s papers on this fubject are now in the hands of Mr. Aftle.
In the latter part of life, Mr. Mores (who had long turned his thoughts to the fubject of early Printing) began to correct the ufeful publication of Mr. Ames*. On the death of Mr. John James of Bartholomew Clofe (the laft of the old race of letter-founders) in June, 1772, Mr. Mores purchafed all the curious parts of that immenfe collection of punches, matrices, and types, which had been accumulating from the days of Wynkyn de Worde to thofe of Mr. James. From thefe a large fund of entertainment would probably have been given to the curious, if the life of Mr. Mores had been prolonged. His intentions may be judged of from his valuable “ Differtation on Typographical “Founders and Founderies.” As no more than 80 copies of it were printed, it will at leaft be confidered as a typographical curiofity. Mr. Nichols, who pur- chafed the whole impreffion, has fubjoined a {mall Appendix to it.
Mr. Mores was a moft indefatigable collector, and poffeffed great application in the early part of his life, but in the latter part gave himfelf up to habits of neg- ligence and diffipation, which brought him to his end by a mortification in the 49th year of his age, at his houfe at Low Leyton, Nov. 28, 1778. His large col- lection of curious MSS. and valuable library of books were fold by auction by Mr. Paterfon in Auguft fol- lowing. Of the former his “ Hiftory and Antiquities of “Tunftall in Kent,” the only papers that were com- pleted for the prefs, and for which he had engraved a fet of plates out of the many drawings taken at his ex- pence, was purchafed at the fale by Mr. Nichols, who
has now given it to the publick as a {pecimen of paro-
* Mr. Nichols has a tranfcript of his few corre¢tions on that book.
t Several Vifitations of Kent, with large additions by Mr. Mores, were purchafed by Mr. Hatted. chial
MEMOIRS XVII
chial antiquities, which will fhew the ideas of this in- duftrious Antiquary, and his endeavour to make even the minuteft record fubfervient to the great plan of national hiftory. Several books of Englifh antiquities with his MS. notes, and the moft valuable part of fuch of the MSS.* and {carce tracts as relate to our local antiquities, were purchafed by Mr. Gough. Mr. Aftle purchafed his epitome of the Regifters of the See of Canterbury, preferved in the Archiepifcopal Library at Lambeth, beginning with the firft Regifter called Peckham, A. D. 1279, and ending with that of Arch- bifhop Tenifon in 1710; and his “ Excerpta ex Regif- “tris Cur. Preerog. Cantuar.”’ 3 vols. 8vo; vol. I. con- taining extracts from wills in the Prerogative-office, from 1385 to1533; vol. II. extracts from 1533 to 1561; vol. III. extracts from 1592 to 1660. To the firft vol- ume is prefixed a learned and curious differtation con- cerning the authority of the Prerogative Court, with the names of the feveral Regifters. Mr. Aftle has alfo his catalogue of the Rolls preferved in the Lam- beth library, made in the year 1758; his collections for the Hiftory and Antiquities of the City of Salifbury, containing feveral curious particulars and tran{cripts of records, &c. with fome fhort Annals of the Univer- fity of Oxford, from 1066 to 1310; anda MS. in Latin intitled “De #lfrico Archiepifcopo Dorovernenfi “<Commentarius. Auctore Edwardo-Rowe Mores,
“A.M. Soc. Antig. Lond. Soc.” This laft MS. is in
* Among thefe laft were imperfect alphabetical lifts of incumbents in Canterbury and Rochefter diocefes, fome corporation rentals for Salifbury, fome other colle¢tions for which place, and feveral rolls of ancient deeds, were bought by Mr. ‘Topham: the originals of Bat- teley’s “‘Antiquitates Rutupine,”’ Ballard’s “‘ Memoirs of illuftrious “<Ladies,” &c. Among the former, Browne Willis’s “ Mitred Ab- “bies,” and Dr. Tanner’s “ Notitia Monafticta.”
t By his intimacy with the late Mr. St. Eloy, one of the regifters of the prerogative court, he got accefs to that office, and had thereby an opportunity of drawing up the above learned account.
the
XVil1 MEMOIRS
the hand-writing of Mr. Mores, and feems to have been intended for publication. It contains ten chap- ters; the firft feven relate to Archbifhop Aélfric; Cap. 8. is intitled “‘ De Aélfrico Bata;” Cap. 9. “ De Alfrico “ Abbate Meildunenfi;” Cap. 10. “ De allis Aélfricis.” An Appendix is fubjoined, containing tranfcripts of Saxon charters and extracts from hiftorians concerning Archbifhop A‘lfric.
Mr. Mores married Sufannah daughter of Mr. Bridgman, an eminent grocer in Whitechapel, who was before his father-in-law by having married the widow of his father. By this lady, who died in 1767, and lies buried in the church yard at Walthamftow with the infcription given below*, he had a daughter, Sarah, married in 1774 to Mr. John Davis, houfe painter at Walthamftow, who died before her father; and a fon, E.dward-Rowe, married in 1779 to Mifs Spence. Mr. Mores’ only fifter was married in 1756 to Mr. John Warburton, (fon of the late antiquary and Somerfet herald John Warburton, efq.) who has refided at Dub- lin many years, and is now purfuivant of the court of exchequer in [reland.
*Sufanne Mores, || Annorum triginta feptem liberorum binorum matri || amantiflime, fidelifime, dileCtifime. || Conjugi ||fupremum mariti donum || Mitem placide reddidit animam || Dereli€tum || Luu || Fide folum leniendo obruens || Oftavo die Jan. Incarnat. Anno || MDCCLXVII.
Mr. Mores was buried by her, and his atchievement in Waltham- ftow church has Quarterly 1. 4. Mores. 2G. a Quatre foil O. 3. Rowe. Impaling Sab. 10 plates, on a chief A. a lion paffant Sa. gutte A. Bridgeman.
PEDIGREE
1607; died Nov. 12,
i} I Sir Henry Rowe, knt.=Sufan, da. of Tho- ohn Rowe, eldeft id William Rowe, = Anne, da. of Robert Rove 4th fon Mary, ux. lord mayor of Lond. | mas Kighley, of fon, fheriff of Bed- of Higham-hill, efq. | John Chey- marr. Eleanor, da. of Tho. Ran- Grey’s Thorock, in fordfhire, marr. . . d. June 29, 1596, ney, of Chef- Tho. Jermy, of Wor- dall. 1612, et. 68; buried | Effex, efq. Wilfon, bur. at Walthamftow. | ham Boys, c. fted, in Norfolk, efq. (Epit.) Bucks, efq. =
at Hackney.
OF
EDWARD-ROWE MORES.
[ From Nichols’ Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica |
Sir Thomas Rowe, knt. lord mayor of London,= Mary, da. of Sir John Grefham, knt. 1568, in which year he purchafed Higham-hall, | Lord-Mayor of London, and coufin of in Walthamftow, Effex; died 18 Sept. 1570, bur. | Sir Thomas Grefham, knt.
in his chapel at Hackney.
Elizab. ux. Sir William Gar-
rett, of Dorney co. Bucks, knt.
of Thomas Dennis, of the Ifle of Wight.
I 2 Sir Hen. Rowe,=Sarah, da. Tho. Rowe, Mary. Sufan, d. 1645, bur. Rob Rowe, =Sufan,da.of..... Four fons. Four daughters. Sir Tho. Rowe, knt. Tho. Mores, of Cox-=Dowfabel, da. of Shacklewel, | and co-heir d. in Ger- Anne. in St. Laurence Jewry of Low- Jacob. embaflador to the well, co. Berks, 11 ys en of Giles many, 1620. with her hufb. Wm. Layton, co. Porte, d. 1644. bur. b. at Hackney. | Duncomb, f. p. buried Haliday, two years Effex, gent. at Woodford. of London. at Hackney. chairman of the Eaft living 1634.
India Company, and T alderman, who d. Feb. 14, 1623.
Vf Thos. Mores, = Bridget, da. of
of Coxwell. Wm. Wilmot. et. 63, 18 March, 1664.
2 Henry Roe, ==Katherine, da. and Sir Thomas Roe, = Anne, da. of Four other sons. Cath. Rowe, Anne Rowe, d. at=Edward Mores, Francis Mores, Thomas, 1. Mary. fon and heir, | heir of Edward of Swarford,co. | Anthony Lang- Téree daughters. d.1737, bur. Tunftall,c. Kent. | of Great Cox- et. ann. 18 d.1654: ~ 2 ob. ante 28 | Woodiar, of Cook- Oxford, knt. ob. | fton, of Little- Vide 6D.14,in at Waltham- Jan. 5, 1724, et. | well, co. Berks, © March, 1664. 3. Anne. May, 1660. | ham, co. Berks; ante 24 Dec. ton, co. Wore. Coll. Armor. ftow. (Epit.) § 773 bur. at Wal- | gent. 4 living a widow, 28 1686. ob. Dec. 1691. thamftow. (Efzit.) 5 May, 1660. 6. Rachel.
= Warwick, da. of Deodatus
Henry Roe, efq. of
Shacklewell, fon and of Mofwell-Hill
heir, ob. 15 Aug. Stafferton, of | co, Midd. efq. 1670, et. 36, bur.at Everfley, co. Will dated 13 Hackney. (£pit.) Hants, efq. May, 1704.
Trevor Hill, vifc.= Mary Rowe, eldeft
5 May 1742. 2d | 1696, ob. 22 Aug.
hufband. May, 1714.
1742.
Wills Hills, ear\ of Hillfborough, &c. living 1780. =
Anthony Rowe, =
=Sir Edmund Denton, Hillfborough, ob. | da. and co-heir, born of Hillefden, co. Bucks, bart. 1ft hufb. ob. 4
Sir Tho. Rowe of Swarford, Three other children. co. Oxford, knt. fon and
heir, marr. and had iffue.
Mary, da. of Major Robert Manley, proved her hufband’s ae will, 1706. He
ftall, d. Apr. 8, 1740. bur. at
Walthamftow. (Epit.) London.
Charlotte Rowe, 2d da. and co-heir, ux. Geo. Forrefter, lord Forrefter, in Scotland.
Arabella Rowe, 3d da. and co- heir, ux. John Cockburn efq.
-John Warburton, only = Ann-Catherine fon of John W. efq. Mores, marr. of Low-Leyton, F.S.A. d. Nov. 28, 1778, bur.
at Walthamiftow 4.
Somerfet-herald. 14 Dec. 1754.
John Davis, of =Sarah Mores,
Walthamftow. marr. 1774. living 1780,
2 Francis Mores, of Coxwell, = Margaret, da. of Francis De la More, of Clanfield, co. Oxford, d. 1675, b. at Coxwell, (Epiz.)
Edward Mores, retor of Tun- = Sarah, da. of Shadrach = Windfor, merchant of grocer, in White- chape! = 2d hutb.
3 Edward Mores.
. Dulcibella, d. March, 1675.
. Margaret, b. Nov. 2, 1654. . Elizabeth, b. June 25, 1658.
Poe Bridgeman,
Edward-Rowe Mores, =Sufan Bridgeman, died
1757, bur. at Walth- amftow,
Edward Rowe Mores,=Mary, da. of Capt. Wil- liam Spence, marr. 1779.
* Arg. on a chevron B. between 3 trefoils party per pale G. and B. 3 bezants. Creft, a ftag’s head couped G. Rowe. $C. 21—133.in Coll. Arm. {C. 12—64 in Coll. Arm. § A quatrefoil in a lozenge. || In a lozenge, baron, A. on a fefs coupe
G. between 3 heath-cocks, S. a gerbe O. Mores, imp. G. a quatrefoil O. Rowe.
chief A. a lion paffant S. gutte A. Bridgeman.
@ Arms on his atchievement in Walthamftow church, baron, Mores, quartering the two coats of Rowe the quatrefoil, and trefoils as above; femme S. 10 plates, on a
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ia
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NOTES SUPPLEMENTARY TO GOUGH’S MEMOIRS
BY D. B. UPDIKE
"Lise Memoir of Edward Rowe Mores by Richard Gough, the antiquary, which precedes these Notes, first appeared in Nichols’ “Biblio- theca Topographica Britannica,” as a preliminary to Mores’ “ History and Antiquities of Tunstall,” which was the first paper of the collection. It is the chief source of information about him, and all subsequent notices are based upon it, if they are not mere trans- cripts thereof. But there are passages, chiefly in the notes to Nichols’ “ Biographical and Literary Anec- dotes of William Bowyer,’— whose “apprentice, part- ner and successor’’ Nichols was,—in his “ Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century” and “TIllus- trations of the Literature of the Eighteenth Century,” which, as they further describe Mores’ interests, ex- plain his activities, and illustrate the whimsical char- acteristics of the man, I have drawn on here.
The connection of Mores with Low Leyton, in which Essex village he passed much of his life, came about through his father, Edward Mores, who had there served as curate to John Strype, the historian. For his paternal relative Mores exhibited considera- ble piety,and in his“‘ History and Antiquities of Tun- stall’ in Kent, of which parish the elder Mores was later rector, he devotes some pages to a quite irrele- vant account of the buffetings suffered by his patient parent at the hands of a sinister individual named Bannister—whose son’s defence of sim, published somewhat ironically by Nichols as an appendix to
Mores’
XX NeOeIES
Mores’ “History,” fills nearly sixteen closely printed quarto pages, abounding in angry and unintentionally amusing passages. From Edward Rowe Mores’ pic- ture of the elder Mores, one would suppose him to be a guileless and amiable gentleman who, besides other benevolent activities, rebuilt, in 1712, the rec- tory-house of Tunstall, at his own expense. But “for the encouragement of those who may be hereafter minded to go and do likewise,” says his son, “be it known that the only recompense he met with from his parishioners was a continuous series of abuses, in- sults,and oppression.”’ Nichols—also a native of Low Leyton and a friend of Mores—tells quite another story. His statements are evidently based on a pas- sage in a letter written to Richard Gough in 1781 by the Reverend William Cole,— the friend of Walpole and Gray,—which runs: “I this week sent for, from Mr. Merrill, the ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,’ and was rather concerned to find Mr. Mores has em- ployed eight or nine pages unnecessarily to inform the world of his father’s disputes with his parish; had he been ever so much in the right, it would surely have been more judicious to have let the remembrance of such squabbles die with theauthors of them. Yet Iam sorry to say, that I am afraid this gentleman by birth was also of a litigious and quarrelsome disposition. I am warranted to say so, by a perusal of several of his ori- ginal Letters to Mr. John Strype the Historian, a man of a quiet, humane and meek disposition, to whom Mr. Edward Mores was curate at Low Leytonin 1739, with whom he had disputes; and from his own Let- ters, his boisterous and wrangling nature may easily be discerned, and from which it should seem that Mr. Mores was not the neighbour one would wish to live near. ] think I discern a spice of the same spirit in the son, whom I once was in company with, being introduced to him by my worthy patron, Browne
Willis,
IO} TUES Xx
Willis, esq. But our acquaintance ended in the first visit.”
Even in Mores’ Oxford years, he managed to at- tract attention for his learning in extraordinary and out-of-the-way subjects, and by conduct often as ec- centric as his interests. Andrew Ducarel, keeper of the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Balace (which Mores helped him to set in order), in a letter written from Doéctor’s Commons in1741 to the Rev. William Cole, says: “Mr. Mores is a young Gentleman of very good Fortune and about 25 year’s of Age, educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, a very fine Scholar, very good natur’d Man and anexcellent English Antiquary, —the Progress he has made in our English Antiqui- ties is amazing and his Discoveries of Antiquities now extant in Oxford, unknown to Tom Hearne and even to the present Antiquaries there, tho’ very obvious when he shew’d ’em to them, makes me believe that he will make a very great Figure hereafter, — I will in future Letters give you some Account of those Anti- quities, and have the further Satisfaction of having him for a neighbour in The Herald’s Office where he has lately taken a House.”
It was about the year 1760 that Mores definitely retired to Low Leyton, where he had inherited some property, and where he built a house no less odd than himself. This he called Etlow Place—the plan of which, he said, was that of a house once seen in France. He mystified his friends by appearing in a strange academic costume which he stated was that of a Dominican friar; and called himself ‘ Doctor of Divinity,” which he allowed people to fancy was a de- gree bestowed by the Sorbonne. And the discursive Nichols, after minute investigations and correspond- ence, which are reported by him at length and are not worth printing here, exclaims, “ When, where or how, he came by this degree is extremely unaccountable!”
and
Xxil NOTES
and adds that he had “been assured by a very inti- mate friend of his, that Mr. Mores received the on- orary title of D.D. in consequence of a literary favour which he had conferred on some foreign Roman Cath- olic Ecclesiastics, who wished to repay him bya pecun- iary acknowledgement, which he politely declined ac- cepting. Mr. Mores,” he continues, “was as ambitious of singularity in religion as in other pursuits; and if he could be said to be a member of any particular church, it was that of Erasmus, whom he endeavoured to imitate. He thought the Latin language peculiarly adapted to devotion, and wished, for the sake of unity, that it was universally in use. He composed a creed in it, with a kind of Mass on the death of his wife, of which he printed a few copies, in his own house, under the disguised title of ‘Ordinale Quotidianum, 1685. Ordo Trigintalss.’ .
“Of his daughter’s education,” writes Nichols, “‘ Mores was particularly careful. From her earliest in- fancy he talked to her principally in Latin. The gen- tleman from whom I received this information dined with Mr. Mores when his daughter was not more than two years old. Among other articles they had soup, with which the child had soiled her lip. Adsterge la- bium, said the father. The child understood the Latin, and wiped her upper lip. Inferius, said Mr. Mores, -and she did as he meant she should. She was sent to Rouen, for education; but without the least view to her being a Roman Catholic: on the contrary, he was much displeased when he found that she had been per- verted.”
The establishment in which Mores placed his daughter was undoubtedly the Mazson des Filles Hos- pitaliéres de Saint ‘foseph, a sisterhood established at Rouen in 1654. Its foundress was Marie Delpech de Lestan, a protegée of Anne of Austria, and its object was the education and maintenance of poor orphan
girls
NOTES xxiii
girls of respectable family; though from Mores’ first letter it appears that children of a better worldly sit- uation were admitted. This work was developed by members of the Brebion family, and seems to have been supported chiefly by them up to 1730. At that period the establishment was situated near the old church of St. Nicaise. Its later history I cannot trace, except that it was in existence in 1774. It undoubt- edly shared the fate of all French religious houses at the Revolution. Two curious Latin missives survive, addressed to the superior of the convent by Mores, dated, respectively, die decollationis S. Fob. Bapt. (August 29),1768, and postridie concept.(December 9) inthe same year; probably to show the reverend mother that he was as erudite in church festivals as she could possibly be! The first letter, ““English’d” by Mores himself, is an interesting example of his whimsical yet entertain- ing style; the second, for the first time translated, fol-
lows it.
I
To the worshipful Matron the Superior of the Convent of S. Foseph at Rouen, Ep>warv-Rowe Mores greeting:
E commit, worshipful Madam, our only daugh-
ter to your keeping and management: and the more willingly for that, besides the strict discipline of your house, we understand that none others of our Nation are at present with you.
She is a child of a ready wit, an acute judgement, and of a temper not unamiable; docile and tractable: but, being deprived of her mother (who whilst living was afflicted with almost continual illness) and being too much loved and indulged by me, and entrusted rather beyond what her years might justify, and being in some respects superior to the generality of her age and sex, she refused obedience to all command but mine; who, being busied about many things, had not
nor
XXIV NOPGS
nor have sufficient leisure to superintend and direct her conduct.
Nevertheless she comes to you, most venerable Ma- tron, from her father’s house; brought up and fostered there (and only there) from the first moment of her existence, not transporting with her from any female school of ours (all which I detest and hate) any spot or blemish to your sacred flock; but pure and blame- less, and innocent from the corruptions of the world: and I trust that in the same purity and blamelessness and innocence she shall with the blessing of Provi- dence be restored to us again.
Touching works to be performed by a needle, and how far it may be proper for her to be exercised therein, as they are matters out of my knowledge, I leave them to the women who accompany her. — Let them be useful, not trifling; accommodated to the purposes of domestic ceconomy.
Touching other works which more properly fall within my direction and judgement —let her be well instructed in the arts of writing, drawing, and arith- metic.
We place her in the upper order of pensioners; not that upon that account the reins may be let loose to indolence or idleness, or that the most rigid discipline exerted amongst the nuns of your house and order may in any wise be infringed or relaxed. Though in station she is superior, yet in obsequiousness and duty let her be as the lowest; and though she 1s lay, let her be as religious. By no means, upon any pretence what- ever, let her go into the city, or pass the walls of the convent, or form any acquaintance but with the nuns of your own house. With them let her dine; with them let her sup; and with them let her be a companion; for, having been trained hitherto with grown persons, we would not have her now associated with children. Let her diligently attend the service of the church;
matins
NOTES XXV
matins I mean and vespers. Let her rise early and go to rest early, and with sedulity perform the business allotted to her. And by how much the more, rever- end Madam, you shall enforce obedience in these par- ticulars, by so much the more will you rise in our respect and estimation, and claim the tribute of our obligations and thankfulness.
All letters directed by the child to me, and all let- ters directed by me to her, I wish to pass unopened. As to any others, if any such should be, which I be- lieve not, let them be opened, let them be read, and do with them according to your discretion.
Nearly the same request I am to make as to the books which she brings with her. Let her be permitted to read them in her chamber. Not any of them con- cern Religion but the Bible.
And having said thus much, most excellent lady, I might commit both you and her to the protection of the Almighty; but I cannot fail to add, that as I,a Divine of another church, have committed my daugh- ter to your care, I must expect the same indulgence and the same fidelity as I myself should show were your daughter committed to my care. Your dictates I should strictly obey, your directions observe in all things. And as we are both devoted to the same ser- vice, the glory of God and the salvation of souls, bear in mind the affinity which is betwixt us; and consider me as your brother, even as I consider you as my sister in the Lord. The end we aim at is the same, though the means we use to attain that end in some things differ. May the blessing of God be upon you
and your holy house! Amen.
From Leyton in the county of Essex, the day of the decollation of St. Fohn the Bapt. 1768.
To the
XXVI1 NOTES
Il | To the worshipful Matron the Superior of the Hospitaler Sisters of the Convent of S. ‘foseph at Rouen, KDwaRv- Rowe Mortss greeting:
REJOICED exceedingly, and return my heart-
iest thanks, most distinguished Madam, because, moved by my ardent wishes, you deigned to receive my daughter into your convent, although she was a foreigner, the offspring of a parent whom you did not know.
My delight is increased because the newly arrived guest will lodge ina room near the Superior—by how much the closer her proximity to you should be, rev- erend Madam, by so much the closer would she be in learning, and 1n manners, and in every virtue. Living in the midst of so many examples of piety, it is hardly possible that she fall into transgression: nevertheless, as she is an alien, and of a foreign nation, and accus- tomed to foreign manners, if she waver through ig- norance, let her be pardoned for her offence. If she should overstep these bounds, however, and either in your presence or in the presence of another should be more seriously at fault, I pray that I may be in- formed; nor shall paternal authority be wanting for her correction.
But my joy was somewhat tempered, reverend Madam, by a vain and silly letter (written by a certain religious zealot of our Nation, as I infer) which was repeated to my W ,* who is rightly most devoted to you and yours, without your knowledge: for I consider that you and yours are not of the kind who are given to such foolish talk. From this we learn that the young girl has been addressed on the subject of Religion. Assuredly I am distressed, and think it con- trary to the pledge made to me, that another should
* This is not his daughter’s initial. Her name was Sarah.
put
NOTES XXVII
put a sickle in my harvest: I am the more distressed because, believing my daughter to have been com- mitted to the safest trust, I seem to feel that my in- structions have been slighted. It was my devout wish that on matters of this kind, which are less adapted to her tender age, there should be unqualified silence, in strict conformity with the injunctions that she should have no association with English people. We ask again the same solemn pledge; we repeat the same in- junction. Let me entreat you, reverend Madam, that she be instructed in those things on which we for- merly decided. The other matters shall be my care.
Farewell, and (though unknown to you) keep me in affection.
From Leyton in the county of Essex, Morrow of the conception [B. V. M.] 1768.
The “religious zealot of our Nation,” to whom Mores alludes above, may have been a member of either of two ancient English communities in Rouen, one of which we know existed in Mores’ day. The first was the Religieuses Angloises de Sainte Claire, formerly of Gravelines. Their original convent was the gift of an Englishwoman, and their church, built in 1667, was consecrated by an Irish prelate. The second was that of the Religieuses de Sainte Brigitte,a community driven out of England in Elizabeth’s reign. This throws light on Mores’ injunction that his daughter should have no intercourse with persons of her own nationality while in Rouen. However that may be, the unqualified silence he demanded was not, apparently, obtained; for the daughter, while at the convent it would seem, was received into the Roman Catholic Church. And as is common with ladies, the lady superior had the last word, or at any rate the last laugh, which 1s still consid- ered desirable even in the holy mirth of ecclesiastical
circles ! Mores’
XXVIII NOTES
Mores’ antiquarian tastes led him to prepare, or to assist in preparing, books on genealogy, history, and like subjects, although many of such projects he tired of before they were completed. He collected material — for a history of Oxford, which was particularly full in relation to his own college, Queen’s, the archives of which he arranged and calendared. Of his various es- says in parochial history, perhaps the most important was that of Tunstall, in Kent, his father’s parish, to which was prefixed the memoir by Gough, already al- luded to. The surprising range of Mores’ interests may be inferred from the fact that he was one of the first to suggest a society for life insurance; and indeed organ- ized suchacompany. It is less surprising and equally characteristic that as soon as it became a practical and working affair, he abandoned it! ;
In typography Mores was always interested and he appears to have set up a private press at Low Leyton. One of his abortive schemes was a new edition of “Ty- pographical Antiquities,” by Joseph Ames,—against whom, by the way, he had some ancient grudge,— for which he left a few notes in manuscript. Mores figures somewhat unfavourably in the episode of Bowyer’s gift of Anglo-Saxon types used in the Anglo-Saxon grammar compiled by Elizabeth Elstob—a lady amusingly depicted by Mores in his “ Dissertation.” These characters were confided to Mores’ care by William Bowyer, the younger, in 1753, for presenta- tion to the University of Oxford, and the letter that Bowyer wrote on this occasion is printed in the “ Dissertation.”” Bowyer chose Mores to do this, as he was much interested in Saxon studies, and was of Queen’s College, the rallying-point of Saxonists at Oxford. “ For some reason that does not appear,” says Reed, in his account of the Oxford University Foun- dery, “Rowe Mores, on receipt of the punches and matrices, instead of transmitting them to Oxford, took
them
NOTES XXiX
them to Mr.Caslon’s foundery to be repaired and ren- dered more fit for use. Mr. Caslon having kept them four or five years without touching them, Mr. Bowyer removed them from his custody, and in 1758 en- trusted them to Mr. Cottrell, from whom in the same year he received them again, carefully ‘fitted up’ and ready for use, together with 15 lbs. of letter cast from the matrices. In this condition the whole was again consigned by Mr. Bowyer to Rowe Mores, together with a copy of Miss Elstob’s ‘Grammar,’ for trans- mission to Oxford. On hearing, two years later, that his gift had never reached the University, he made inquiries of Mores, from whom he received a reply [in 1761] that ‘the punches and matrices were very safe at his house,’ awaiting an opportunity to be forwarded to their destination. This opportunity does not appear to have occurred for three years longer, when, in Oc- tober, 1764, the gift was finally deposited at Oxford. Its formal acknowledgement was, however, delayed till August, 1778, exactly a quarter of a century after its presentation.
“The correspondence touching this transaction, amusing as it is, throws a curious light on Rowe Mores’ character for exactitude, and it is doubtful whether the publication of Mr. Bowyer’s first letter in the ‘ Dissertation,’ together with a few flattering com- pliments, was an adequate atonement for the injury done to that gentleman by the unwarrantable deten- tion of his gift. Nor does the title under which the gift was permitted to appear in the University speci- men, suppressing as it does all mention of the real donor’s name, and giving the entire honour to the dil- atory go-between, reflect any credit on the hero of the transaction. The entry appears thus: ‘ Charaéleres Anglo-Saxonict per eruditam foeminam Eliz. Elstob ad jidem codd. mss. delineati: quorum tam instruments cu-
soriis quam matricibus Univ. donari curavit E.R. M.é Collegto
Sek NOTES Collegio Regin., AM. 1753.” This time it was Mores
who laughed last—virtue, as far as Mr. Bowyer was concerned, being its own (and only) reward.
These types do not seem ever to have been used. Their punches and matrices are still in the Oxford University Press.
Mores is particularly important to the student of English type-founding and printing because toward the end of his life he purchased all the older portions of the stock of John James, of Bartholomew Close— a collection inherited from his father, Thomas James*
(notorious for his trickery of William Ged), + and dat- ing
* Thomas James (d. 1736), son of the Rev. John James, vicar of Basingstoke, and father to the John James (d. 1772) from whom Mores bought his foundery, is remembered, not much to his credit, for his association with William Ged, whose invention of stereo- typing (first put into execution in 1725) he was at as much pains to defeat in practice, as Mores was to explode it in theory. His brother, John James (dragged into the affair for his influential con- nections and ready cash), whom Mores curtly characterizes as ‘ an architect at Greenwich,” was a man of cultivation and clerk of the works at Greenwich Hospital, —a post in which he succeeded Nich- olas Hawksmoor,—where he worked under Sir Christopher Wren and Vanbrugh, architeét of Blenheim. James later became surveyor to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Abbey, and was the designer of St. George’s, Hanover Square, and some other churches and country- houses. ‘Ihe Hancock papers show that he visited New England on a journey for health and pleasure, in the late seventeen-thirties ; and the unusual plan and distinguished design of Shirley Place at Roxbury (Boston), the seat of Sir William Shirley, Colonial Governor of Massa- chusetts, have been attributed to him. This fine mansion, built in 1746 (the year of John James’s death), known as the Shirley-Eustis House, is still standing, though the estate is altogether shorn of its lands and the house somewhat of it dignities.
t For Ged’s pathetic story see Biographical Memoirs of William Ged, including a particular Account of bis Progress in the Art of Block-Print- ing. London: Printed by and for J. Nichols, 1781. “The first part of this pamphlet,” says Nichols, its editor, “‘was printed from a MS. dictated by Ged sometime before his death; the second part was written by his daughter, for whose benefit the profits of the publica-
tion
™
NOTES ; XXX1
ing from very early times. “ Whether any motive be- sides a pure antiquarian zeal prompted the purchase,” says Reed, “or whether he [Mores] held the collec- tion in the capacity of trustee, is not known, but it seems probable he had been intimately acquainted with the foundry and its contents for some time before James’s death. He speaks emphatically of it as ‘our’ foundry, and his disposition of its contents for sale is made with the authority of an absolute proprietor. It does not appear, however, that during the six years of his possession any steps were taken to extend or even continue the old business, which we may assume to have died with its late owner.”
From Mores’ examination of the material of this foundery he prepared his paper “On English Foun- ders and Founderies,” for I think the title “A Dis- sertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies” was given it by Nichols, who added a title-page and notes to the original treatise. Only a few months before Mores’ death, he wrote—I quote from Nichols— “the following short billet, dated Leyton, July 22, 1777, the last that Mr. Bowyer received from him, which no doubt had to do with the preparation of his ‘Dissertation’”:
“Dear Sir, lam porastiais of ascertaining the time at which the bodies received their names, and I think I can do it pretty well. I shall take as a great favour your opinion why English is called English. An additional
favour will be the Italian names of the bodies, or a
tion were designed; the third was a copy of proposals, that had been published by Mr. Ged’s son in 1751, for reviving his father’s art ; and to the whole was added Mr. Mores’s narrative of block-print- ing.” This last paper is an extract from the Dissertation and to it John Nichols has added notes correcting Mores’s misstatements: for his account of Ged is not merely prejudiced, but inaccurate. ‘The Biogra- phical Memoirs were reprinted in 1819 at Newcastle for 'T. Hodgson, whose Essay on the Origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing (Newcastle, 1820) may be consulted in this connection.
direction
XXXIl NOTES
direction where to find them. Another addition, are the names given by other printing nations besides the German, French, English, and Dutch, to be found in books? I could go on with additionals; but I must not be further troublesome.”
Mores’ “ Dissertation” falls into certain divisions. He first mentions the early printers who were their own type-founders, — like Caxton, De Worde, Pynson, —and then considers early and later learned types in what Mores styles “Oriental” and “Occidental” languages. He then takes up type of the “‘Septentrio- nal’ tongues; and after a digression on the names of type and the regular and irregular bodies commonly used in England, returns to the subject of northern types and their derivations. Some pages follow, de- voted to “flowered letters” and printers’ “flowers.” The treatise then considers the early type-founders proper, beginning with those appointed by the Star Chamber decree, and continues with notices of Moxon, the Oxford foundery, Grover, Andrews, Thomas James, —with letters about his search for types in Holland, — Caslon, and Ilive. An account of the foun- dery of John James—whose establishment included material from nine old English founderies and whose stock Mores bought—follows; with notices of the four authorized founders in Mores’ own time— Cas- lon, Cottrell, Jackson, and Moore—and paragraphs devoted to some less-known—among them, Basker- ville. Mores ends his “ Dissertation” with (1) a table showing that, with the exception of the four author- ized founders and the Oxford foundery, the James collection contains the material of all the old English founderies of which precise knowledge exists, and (2) a synopsis of the “learned” types then extant in Eng- land, grouped under languages and, in turn, classed as Orientals, Meridionals, Occidentals, and Septentrio-
nals,
NOTES XXXI11
nals, with the names of the founders in whose posses- sion they were.
The “ Dissertation”’ is full of picturesque bits and contains an immense amount of curious information imparted in the author’s characteristic manner. Why Mores adopted in it such an extraordinary and incon- sistent method of abbreviation, I do not know. The lack of capitals at the beginning of all sentences, ex- cept those which commence a paragraph, was (I think) an affectation based on classical manuscripts and early printed editions of the classics, which were often ar- ranged in this way.
The number of copies printed of the “ Disserta- tion,” and issued with notes by Nichols, is commonly stated as eighty; but a letter written to him by Samuel Paterson in August, 1779, casts some doubt on this statement. “I spoke to Mr. Mores* this morning,” he writes, “and told him I thought . . . a very fair price for the remainder of his Father’s Tract on Founders, &c. considering the purchaser had a just title to the profits of his profession; and, if sold at . . . to gentle- men, it was the full worth of it, even to consider it as a curiosity. He consented; and desired only that I would reserve him a few, some eight or ten copies. I judge then you may have about fo. To tell you the truth, I had some thoughts of purchasing the whole myself, and might have had them for a word speak- ing — for, upon a cursory view, I thought I discovered some oversights, which might be removed, and the tract reprinted with advantage. But, finding that you are of the same opinion, who are so much better quali- fied, I have given over all thoughts of it, and will read- ily give you any little assistance in my power. I shall be able to set you right respecting Ged, where Mr. Mores is manifestly wrong. I could give you also a note on Baskerville, to demonstrate that he knew very little * Son to the author of the Dissertation.
of
XXX1V NOTES
of the excellences of Typography, beyond the common productions which are to be found every day in Pater- noster Row; and therefore, in a comparative view, might readily conclude he had outstript them all. But is it not astonishing that one so well informed as Mr. Mores should fall into such a blunder as to call Dr. Wilkins, Editor of the ‘Coptic Testament,’ ‘ Conci/ia Britannica, &c. our Countryman? Dr. Wilkins, it is well known, was a German Swiss.”
Paterson, the writer of the above letter, was first a bookseller, and then became an auctioneer of consid- erable reputation as a bibliographer and cataloguer, and at one time was librarian to Lord Shelburne— afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne. Paterson’s rooms were then in King Street, Covent Garden; and it was he who sold both Mores’ collection of types and his pri- vate library. “ Few men of this country,” says Nichols, “had so much bibliographical knowledge; and per- haps we never had a Bookseller who knew so much of the contents of books generally. ... If, in his em- ployment of taking Catalogues, he met with a book he had not seen before, which excited his curiosity, or interested his feelings, they must be gratified, and his attendant might amuse himself as he chose. The con- sequence was, that, on many occasions, Catalogues could be procured only a few hours before the sale commenced.”
Mores intended the “ Dissertation”’ as an introduc- tion to a specimen sheet which was to exhibit what his collection contained, or at least the most interest- ing of the enormous mass of matrices, punches, and types which he had acquired; for James’s foundery represented the material of De Worde, Day, Moxon, Walpergen, and all the old founders. This specimen Mores did not live to complete; nor was the close of ourantiquary’s days, we blush to say, particularly cred- itable. “ Habits of negligence and dissipation” is the
phrase
NOTES XXXKV
phrase used to describe his failings, but their nature— whether he became a victim of Punch or a votary of Judy—history does not relate. At any rate, he fell into an irregular and indolent manner of life, and died in the forty-ninth year of his age because of “a mor- tification* in his leg, which he suffered to reach his vitals, sitting in an arm-chair, while the workmen passed through the room to repair the next. He would not admit physician or nurse; and scarcely his own mother, who constantly resided with him after she had lost an annuity of 100 £. His daughter had been some time married, and was dead; and his son had been sent to Holland for education.” The dying, wilful, lonely man ran true to type to the end; and so, not quite fit for hell nor yet for heaven, this odd mortal put on immortality on November 28, 1777. He was buried in Walthamstow Churchyard, and upon his monu- ment were engraved those armorial bearings that were so dear to him in this life, and which (if I am rightly instructed) are singularly unimportant in that which is to come. Regutescat in pace.
The printing materials belonging to Mores were dis- posed of at auction by Paterson on November 20, 1781. His matrices and punches were sold as a sepa- rate collection in the summer of 1782. The sale cata- logue of the latter is a somewhat puzzling compila- tion, and, if Paterson put it together, it does him little credit. It covers 120 small octavo pages. Its title-page | is reproduced on the following leaf.
In all, 349 lots are recorded. The matrices were
*'The common term then used to denote gangrene. Nichols, in speaking of Paterson’s demise in 1802, says, ‘The immediate cause of his death was a hurt in his leg, which happened from stumbling in the dark over a small dog-kennel most absurdly left by his landlady (as servant-maids too often leave pai/s) at the bottom of a stair-case. The wound turned to a mortification, which soon ended fatally.”
placed
XXXVI NOTES
placed in boxes named after early printers—Bynne- man, De Worde, Wolfe, Cawood, Berthelet, Copland, Pynson—and in “a Press named Caxton filled with drawers containing Punches.” In addition, there were “flowers,” moulds, and printers’ materials. It would appear from the entries as if the matrices were of the » period of Bynneman, De Worde, etc.; but although the collection did contain early material, the contents of the boxes had no necessary relation withthe names they bore. “‘ Misled by this circumstance,” says Reed, “it seems more than likely that Paterson may have enhanced the importance of his lots by dwelling on the fact that one fount was ‘De Worde’s,’ another ‘Cawood’s,’ another ‘Pynson’s,’ and so on. The ab- surdity of this delusion becomes very apparent when we see the Alexandrian Greek some years later puffed by its purchasers as the veritable production of De Worde (who lived a century before the Alexandrian MS. came to this country), and find Hansard,in 1825, ascribing seven founts of Hebrew and a Pearl Greek to Bynneman.”
On the first page of the Specimen proper a Latin paragraph appears—no doubt written by Mores— which may be translated thus:
<‘ Let the scholars who shall chance to examine with critical eyes this specimen of the ames types not hold us blameworthy if so be that it appears less finished than desirable, especially in the more learned lan- guages: the purpose was to present it most faultless, albeit the makers think they have done enough if, the faults of the press and the other defects disregarded, it exhibits the form of the letters —great care was ex- ercised; but when the founder was idle, the furnace was idle, and there was a lack of type cast for removing the blemishes.”
The first matrices shown in the Specimen are “ Ori- entals, Hebrew, Biblical,” of which there are eighteen
; lots,
A rt
Sata OG UE Ann SPECIMEN : Of the Large and Extenfive PRINTING-TYPE-FOUNDERY
Of the late ingenious
Mr. JOHN JAMES, LETTER-FOUNDER,
Formerly of BanTHoLoMEWw-CLosz, Lonpov, deceafed:
Including feveral other FOUN DERIES,
ENGLISH AND FoREIGN.
Improved by the late Reverend and Learned EDWARD ROWE MORES, deceafed:
COMPREHENDING
A great Variety of Puncnes and Marrices of the Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Alexandrian, Greek, Roman, Italic, Saxon, Old Englifh, Hibernian, Script, Secretary, Court-Hand, Mathematical, Mufical, and otherCharacters, Flowers, and Ornaments;
Which will be Sold by AucTion, Bynvirsn thai Bak: SOn: N,
At his Great Room (No.6), King’s-Street, Covent-Garden, London,
On Wednefday, 5th June, 1782; and the Three following Days. To begin exactly at 12 o’Clock. To be viewed on Wednefday, May 29, and to the Time of Sale.
Catalogues, with Specimen of the Types, may be had at the Place of Sale. [ Price One Shilling. ]
’ ‘uae At, ane ., a a % Fal eo ae ie ae gS ey : + sie } ‘ " ’ 7 Wire ~ . a. ry ee 4 4) nauk 4 ?: : mei 6 ay ‘ae Uae ‘> ra¥ * i ’ « 6 ES . as (a as y er ary: {
¥A) d by? p 4 ¢ f P y, Pot } ‘ a ‘ow wad 4 F } ae) | £ I ey a
NOTES XXXVII
lots, running in size from two-line English to non- pareil. The succeeding Oriental matrices are Rabbin- ical Hebrew (5), Samaritan (2), Syriac (3), Arabic (2), and Aethiopic (2). Then come the Occidentals repre- sented by an English Alexandrian Greek, “copied from the ancient manuscript in the Museum, written in caps,” followed by ordinary cursive Greek in sizes from double pica to pearl. Of Gothic founts there is but one set of matrices, of Anglo-Saxon four, and of Anglo-Norman two. The next division is styled Septentrionals — Runic, Court Hand, Union, Scrip- torial, Secretary, and Hieroglyphics. The next section is devoted to English (black-letter) types (in all nine- teen sets of matrices), a small collection of roman cap- itals and a very large assemblage of roman and italic matrices, descending in size from canon to diamond. The specimen concludes with six pages of “flowers,”’ some old, but most of Mores’ own period. In the list of material, those lots not displayed in the Specimen have a note to that effect, and, to quote a phrase of Mores (used in another connection), “it is not to be doubted, considering the elegance and simplicity of the assortment which we see, that the foundery was as completely furnished with those we see not, and which for that reason we cannot mention.”
“What was the result of the sale financially,” says Reed, “we cannot ascertain. Of the fate of its various lots we know very little either, except that Dr. Fry secured most of the curious and ‘learned’ matrices. How far the other foundries of the day, at home and abroad, enriched themselves, or how much of the col- lection fell into the hands of the coppersmiths, are problems not likely to find solution. With the sale, however, disappeared the last of the old English foun- dries, and closed a chapter of English typography, which, though not the most glorious, is certainly not the least instructive through which it has passed.”
Mores’
XXXVII1 NOTES
Mores’ library was sold by Paterson in August, 1779, and its contents are described in a catalogue of 184 pages, the long-winded title of which is also repro- duced. But no title-page could cover the extraordinary literary by-ways exhibited by the library. Classical lit- erature was well represented, and there was a good collection of books on divinity. The topographical history and antiquities of England, and English ec- clesiastical and monastic foundations, figured largely both in books and prints. There were volumes on heraldry, travel, civil and common law, liturgies, and a mass of out-of-the-way tractates of every descrip- tion. The books comprised 2838 items, prints and copperplates 115, and mss. and miscellaneous belong- ings 146 lots. The sale lasted over a fortnight.
In the eleventh day’s sale, a short section is de- voted to books on the history and the art of printing —fewer than one might have expected. A transcript of it is given— in its italic, etc., following the original:
Mentelius de vera Typographiae Origine, 4to. Paris. 1650
Seiz Historica Enarratio de Inventione nobilissimae Artis Typo- graphicae, fig. 8vo. Harlem. 1741
Hist. of the Origin and Progress of Printing, 8vo. 1770
Psalmanazar’s Hist. of Printing, by Palmer, 4to. 1732, with some few MS. Correétions by Mr. Mores
Wolfii Monumenta Typographica, 2 tom. 8vo. Hamb. 1740
Meerman Origines Typographicae, 2 tom. en I. ¢.m. 4to. Hag. Com. 1765
Janssonius ab Almeloveen de Vitis Stephanorum celebrium Typographorum, 8vo. Amst. 1683
Spoerlii Introdutio in Notitiam insignium "Ey nographiea 4to. Norimb. 1730
Maittaire Hist. Typographorum Parisiensium, 8vo. Lond. 1717
— Annales Typographict, cum Indice, 7 tom. 4to. Hag.C 1719— 25. Lond. 1741
Moxon’s Rules of the three Orders of Print Letters, 4to. 1676
—Mechanick Exercises, with the Art of Printing, 2 vol. in I, cuts, 4to. 1677-83
Specimen
(No. 17, 1779.) DipLerot HEA MOR ESI AN A:
A Seyates L OG UE
Of the LARGE and VALUABLE
Pel Bonk A ROY OPE PeerNn rE DBO O'FK S,
Rare old Tracts, Manuscripts, PRINTS and Drawinecs, Copper Prates, fundry An- TIQUITIES, PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS, and other CuRIOSITIES,
Of that eminent British ANTIQUARY the late Rev. and learned
Edward Rowe Mores, F. A. s.
Deceafed ;
Comprehending a very choice Collection relative to the Topography, Hiftory, Antiquities, Genealogies, Laws, and ancient Chartulary of Great Britain and Ireland; together with a great Variety of fcarce and curious Books and Traéts in Theological, Philofophical, Ma- thematical, Claffical, and Critical Learning.
Which will be fold by AUCTION,
BeMr PATER S ON,
At his Great Room, No. 6. King-Street, Covent-Garden, London,
On Monday the fecond of Augu/t 1779, and the Sixteen following Days, To begin exactly at Twelve o’Clock.
To be viewed on Wedne/day the 28th of Fu, and to the Time of Sale.
Catalogues may be had at the Place of Sale, Price ONE SHILLING.
2 e
~
iia
NOTES XXX1X
Specimen of the several Sorts of printing Letter, given to the University of Oxford by Bp. Fell and Fr. Junius, 8vo. Oxf. 1695— Cottrell’s Specimen of printing Types, 4to. [4 copies |
Caslon’s Specimen of printing Types, with some other Speci- mens, and Papers relating to Typography
Smith’s Printer’s Grammar, 8vo. 1755
Middleton’s Dissertation on the Origin of Printing in Eng- land, 4to. Camb. 1735
Ames’s Typographical Antiquities, cuts, 4to. 1749, with MS. Corrections by Mr. Mores
Mr. Mores’s Account of English Typographical Founders and Foundertes, 8vo. never published (only 80 Copies were printed)
Jackson on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaroscuro as practised by Alb. Durer, Hugo (sic) di Carpi, &c. cuts in colours, 4to. 1754
In the last day’s sale were also ‘‘zbhree small note-books on early and rare Typography, Foreign and English; Oriental, Greek, and Saxon Charaéters, &c. by Mr. Mores ;— Specimens of singular Print-Letters—Two Treatises of Penmanship and Arithmetic, with The Art of Making Ink, in Spanish, by Juan De Yciar, with his portrait, quarto, printed at Zaragoca [sic], 1559—wvery curious, but the former imperf.” This is the “maimed copy” that Mores alludes to as having been “muti- lated by some fool who has had it before us.”
From my copy of this Catalogue, partially priced, | should suppose that the books and papers were sold at low sums, even for that day. The best of the papers were purchased by Richard Gough. Those relating to Queen’s College were the subject of a correspondence between him and its provost, Dr. Thomas Fothergill, in which the latter alleged that Mores had retained papers lent to him by the college to which he had no right, and which repeated demands had failed to make him return. Gough refused to give them up, alleging that the papers he bought were not those sought by Queen’s. Whatever they were, Gough ultimately gave
them,
xl NOTES
them, with other manuscripts, to the Bodleian, where they noware. And our sorry hero has one more black mark against his memory!
The remainder of Mores’ papers seem to have been chiefly divided between Gough’s intimate friend, John Nichols, and Thomas Astle, author of “The Origin and Progress of Writing.” A number of Mores’ man- uscripts are preserved in the British Museum.
é
A. Dissertation
Oc.
A DISSERTATION UPON ENGLISH ive POR AP HP) CAL FOUNDERS AND FOUNDERIES.
By Epwarp Rowe Mores, A. M. & A.S.S.
M, DCC, LXXVIII.
har, = ie he ee ea bac Ro ae Maps
>
ERR
» 4 * i
bya i avant
* ~
'
* ee 2 Re He He Rm He He
LORE O Maks
O F ENGLISH FOUNDERS
AND Beer Ue ND ESR YL ES.
HE hiftory of Eugi/b Printers has been copi-
oufly handled by thofe who with commendable zeal and diligence have delivered to us the typographi- cal antiquities of the nation. but little or no notice has hitherto been taken of the Founper although he is a firft and principal mover in this curious art.
The moft probable reafon for this filence feems to be, that at the beginning no diftinction was made between the different operations of making the letters and of ufing them after they were made; but the whole exer- cife of the profeffion went under the general denom- ination of Printing; a term which included every article belonging to a printed book from the punch to the bind- ing. that the inventors of this art fo confidered and ex- ercifed it is beyond difpute: the conjecture then may be favoured that their immediate fucceffors followed their example. and it is obfervable that neither in the acts ordinances or injunctions made from 1 Ric. 3. to the year 1637 relative to printersand printed books, nor in the Charter granted to The Company of Stationers, any mention is made of the arts of Letter-cutting and Letter- founding ; both which are feemingly therein compre- hended under The -/cience, art, craft, or myftery of Printing.
Therefore
1474.
1482. 1490.
4 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
Therefore in the account which we are about to give of Engli/b Founders and Enghfh Founderies we mutt ne- ceflarily mention a few of our firft printers, that the progrefs of Letter-making in Engl. may be carried on with as little intermiffion as may be.
And firft Mr Caxton.—his letter originally was of the fort called Secretary; and of this he had two founts. af- terwards he came nearer to The Eng/. face,and had three founts of Great primer; a rude one which he ufed ann. 1474. another fomething better, and a third cut about the y.1488 approaching more nearly to The Engl. face.— two founts of Eng. or Pica, the lateft and beft cut about 1482. one of Double pica, good, which firft appears in 1490, and one of Long-primer,—at leaft nearly agreeing with the bodies which have fince been called by thofe names.
They refemble the ufual character of our manu- {cripts of that age, as thofe of Fauft and Schoeffer and others of the firft printers refemble the character of theirs. all which were of the fame lineage and differed but little in the feature of their countenance. this character has been called (but with no great propriety) The antient rude and Gothic charaéfer. we fay with no great propriety, for the 4ng/o-Saxonic is the parent of _ the Eng/.and Dutch as the Franco-Teutonic 1s the parent of the Germ. alphabet; and the Cimbric of the [fandic, Swedifb,and Danifh.and the Saxons Franks and Futes all received their alphabets from the Lass, whereas the Gothic alphabet was formed by U/philas chiefly from the Greek. Mr Caxton died in the y. 1491.
Wynkyn de Worde, his fervant and fucceffor, had he not been made a denizen would neverthelefs have been entitled to a place amongft the Eng/. printers. he made confiderable advances in theart, enriching his foundery with a variety of new types. his letter was of The /quare
3 Eng.
AND FOUNDERIES. 5
Eng. or black face, and has been the pattern for his fuc- ceffors in the art. he is faid to have been the firft who brought into Eng/. the ufe of Tbe Round Roman letter firft cut by Sweynbeim and Pannartz under the pa- tronage of the Bz/bop of Aleria who was librarian to Paul \1.and this may be true though we know not that it is fo; the firft Rom. which we remember being a mar- ginal quotation in pica at the latter end of the fecond part of a book entitled The Extripation of ignorancy, compyled by Sir Paule Bufbe preeft and bonhome of Edyndon, printed by Pyn/on; “Omnis anima poteftatibus fubli- mioribus fubdita fit,” &*c. but whether this was printed before the y. 1518 when he printed a book wholly in Rom. we know not, as the Extripation of ignorancy 1s without a date. de Worde died in the y. 1534.
His founts (thofe which we have feen) were one of Double-pica, two of Great-primer, both good, but one thicker than the other, an Eng. rudifh,a good Eng. cut about 1496, a Long-primer, and a Brevier which is well enough. Mr Palmer and Mr Pfalmanaazaar give us a circumftance which induced them to think that he was his own Lester-founder. we have no doubt but hewas, yet we cannot own that their reafoning convinces us of it.
Richard Pynfon, who as well as de Worde was a foreigner, and brought up under Mr Caxvon, and natu- ralized, was as well as de Worde an excellent workman. his types in the y. 1496 were Double-pica, Great-primer, and Long-primer, Eng. all clear and good. a rude Eng. Engh/b, an Eng. and a Long-primer Rom. in 1499. an Eng. and a Pica Roman with which was printed Bi/hop Tonftal’s book de arte Jupputandi in 1522.they are thick; but they ftand well in line,and the paperand prefs-work of this edition, which have been commended, are good. he had another and a better fount of Great-primer Eng. with which was printed The Gallicantus of bifhop Alcock, a fevere reproof of the clergy of the times, in 1498.
As
1499.
1503.
1515.
1527.
6 OF ENGLISH FOUN DERS,
As excellent a workman was his contemporary /Vi/- liam Faques. he ufed a new cut Eng. letter equalling if not exceeding in beauty any which our founderies at this day produce.
Once forall be it obferved that the favourite charac- ter of the printers of thefe times were the larger bodies, and particularly Great-Primer. here therefore we difmifs an enumeration which may begin to feem tedious, and haften to f{omething which may be more amufing, ad- ding only that Cop/and the elder(who had been fervant to de Worde) and Wyer and Redman had founts of Two- line Great-Primer; the latter good and beautiful; * that Will. Raftel ufed Italic in 1531; that Berthelet had a fount of Eng. Rom. with a face as thick as Engli/h but pretty; and that Redman ufed a Secretary type in the edition of Raffall’s Grete abregement printed in the y. 1§34.which Secretary is the laft Secretary we remember, and which edition is an edition mentioned by none.
Ona bodyand face of the fame fort feems, according to the account given us by a judicious antiquary, to have been printed an exceeding fcarce work which we have never feen, The abbr. of Sir Anth. Fitzherbertat Wefim.in 1516. the price of which at that time was xl.° for each vol. — Statham’s abbr. printed on avery pretty Secretary, in fize fomething exceeding a drevier fhould have been mentioned by us before, but the book has no date, nor ever had a title-page. it was printed by Pynjfon.
But though thefe and fome others were admirable artifts for the times in which they lived, yet as bigotry was then at it’s height and learning in her infancy, they (the earlieft of them) printed little inEngi/h but legends
* With Copland’s was printed Che trpumphant hvictorp of the Jum: perpall magefe agapnil the turkes 26 Sept. 1532. it was tranflated out of the French by Copland; and this note is inferted becaufe men- tion of the performance is omitted by the Eng/. biographers.
and
AND FOUNDERIES. 7
and prayer-books fuited to the complexion of the age, and in Lazin little but f{chool-books for the ufe of boys.
and although by the endeavours of Lynacre and Grocyn, Sir Tho. More and Era/mus, and the others of ingenuous learning who lived at the beginning of the 16th century, and the munificence of Card. Wolfey to the Univ. of Oxford, the idle fubtleties of the fchools began to give way to polite and folid literature, yet in the y. 1530, ten years after the foundation of the Car- dinal’s Hebrew J/efiure there, fuch {mall advance had been made againft the monkery of the times, that the profeflor Wakefield, a man of eminence in the know- ledge of the Hebrew Syriacand Arabic languages, was con- {trained to omit a third part of his oration to the univer- fity of Camdr. for want of types to print it.— the Greek leéture was eftablifhed about the fame time: yet the firft Greek book which we recollect to have feen printed in England is the homilies fet forth by Sir Fohn Cheke of Cambridge, who after the endowment of the Five lec- tures in each Univ. by Hen. 8. in the y. 1540, was prin- cipally inftrumental in introducing polite learning into that Univerfity. the book was printed at Lond. ann. 1543. by Reg. Wolfe, a naturalized foreigner, and the firft who had a patent for being printer to the king in the Lat.Gr.and Hedr. languages. yet Siberch who printed at Cambr. about twenty years before calls himfelf p77- mum utriu/q; linguein Ang\.imprefforem.and fo he might be. but he printed a few Greek words only inter{perfed amongft his Latin. Wolfe printed nothing in Heodr. nor any thing more in Greek till the y. 1573. which period taking inthe y. 1551 in which Dr Turner printed the firft part of his Herbal at Lond. it is fomething furprizing that the Doctor fhould be reduced to the neceflity of giving the Greek names of the plants in Eng/. letters. and in his defcription of Bryon thalaffion he quotes a whole fentence from Dio/corides in Italics,
which
1543.
LoOT.
1567.
as a
8 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
which it may be fuppofed he would not have done in- tentionally, becaufe in the fecond part printed at Co//en (Cologn ) in 1562 he ufes Greek characters where he has occafion for them.
ohn Day, Archbifhop Parker’s printer, is next to be mentioned; and we mention him with certainty as 4 Founder if not asa proof of the truth of the conjecture that our firft printers cut their own letter. for in the preface to the edition of Aer Menev. which the archb. to allure the Engii/b to the ftudy of their Mother- tongue publifhed in Saxon characters in the year 1567, we are exprefsly told that the types for that edition were cut by Day, and that he was the firft and only one who had cut fuch types. with thefe were printed The Pafchal homily of 4eIfric archb. of Cant.ina {mall duodec. about the y. 1567, and again in another of the fame fize fhortly afterwards ;* and again by Mr Foxe in his Ais and Monuments of The Church; The Archatonomtia of Mr Lambarde in 1568, and The Saxon Gofpels pub- lifhed by the fame Mr Foxe in 1571.— the body is Exg. and he cut a Pica fount fhortly afterwards.
And having arrived at this certainty we fhall mention no more of the Exg/. printers, as we are drawing near to the time when Founding and Printing were feparated from each other, and the former was exercifed as a trade by itfelf, and divided into the feveral branches of Custing, Cafting, and Dreffing; the workers in which feveral branches were indifcriminately called Letter-founders though feweither did or could perform the whole them- felves. but we fhould have obferved, {peaking with dif-
fidence
* Tt is not known that there are two editions of this little book; but we have them both. and here to avoid interruption hereafter we fhall take notice that this homily was reprinted by Mr L’I/fle at Lond. in 1623 with the types of Haviland. and it was reprinted again at Lond. by £. G. in 1638 if the title-page may be credited. but it has the appearance of a falfe title-page, prefixed to fome remaining copies of Mr L’Ifle’s edition.
AND FOUNDERIES. 9
fidence and from recollection only, that the firft books printed here in which was any mixture of Hebr. were Dr Rhefe’s Infiitutiones lingue Cambro-Britannice printed by Orwell in 1592, Minjfheu’s Duétor in linguas in 1617, and Dr Davies's Rudimenta lingue Cambro-Brit. in 1621. all printed at Lond. in the latter the Welch and Hebdr. characters differ from thofe ufed by Dr Rhef in his /n- ftitutiones; and Min/beu's, though a dictionary of eleven languages, ufes no more than five forts of characters to reprefent them; viz. Engl. Saxon, Hebr. Greek and Latin (of both faces) and a {maller Eng/. to exprefs the Dutch and the cognate languages, in which character _alfo the Briz/h is printed. there is no Syriac.— that is printed in Hedr. characters: and the 4radic is printed in /talic.
Indeed the introduction of the ftudy of the Orien- tal languages cannot well be dated higher than the y- 1635, in which year that great promoter of learning, archb. Laud, gave his noble prefent of Oviental manu- {cripts to the Univ. of Oxford, notwithftanding that Sir Paul Pindar had twenty-four years before made a prefent of the fame kind to the Univ. as a proof of this Dr Pocock who had travelled in the Ea/, and on his return was made by archb. Laud his firft Arabic leéfurer, was the year afterwards fent to Con/fantinople to acquire a more thorough knowledge of that language, as well as to collect manufcripts at the charges of his patron.
In this place according to the order of time falls in the mention of A Decree of The Court of Starre- Chamber made 11 ‘Ful. 1637. by which it is ordered,
That there fhall be Four Founders of letters for printing, and no more.
That the archb. of Canz. or the bifhop of Lond. with fix other High Commiffioners fhall fupply the places of thofe four as they fhall become void.
That
1592.
1621.
103.5"
1637.
1640.
%
10 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS, That no Mafter-Founder fhall keep above two ap-
prentices at one time.
That all journey-men-founders be employed by the Matters of the trade, and that idle journeymen be compelled to work upon painof imprifonment, and fuch other punifhment as The Court fhall think fit.
That no Mafter-Founder of letters fhall employ any other perfon in any work belonging to the cafting or founding of letters than freemen or apprentices to the trade, fave only in pulling off the knots of metal hanging at the end of the letters when they are firft caft, in which work every Mafter-Foun- der may employ one boy only not bound to the trade.
And this number of Founders was judged to be fuf- ficient for the whole kingdom, the fame decree limiting the number of Mafter Printers to Twenty as before it had been limited bya decree of the fame Court made 23 Fun. 28 Ehz. and framed by archb. Whitgifi, to avoid the exceflive number of them within the realm, and to reprefs the great enormities and abufes which they had committed to the difturbance of the Church and State. and this decree exprefles a modeft deference to the fuperiority of the printers in the Univerfities, reftrain- ing them from having any more apprentices than one at the moft. an acknowledgement that the Univ. print- ers with a limb of ove apprentice could do as much as the printer royal with fix whole bodies, for fo much is he allowed by the fame decree. but thefe reftraints were taken away by the diffolution of the Court 16 Car. I.
Mr Fob. Spelman {on of Sir Hen. publifhed the Saxon Pfalter froma MS. of his father’s in 1640. it was printed by Badger. the type is different from that ufed by Mr L’ Ife; {o that already four if not five Saxon founts had appeared in the kingdom.
In
AND FOUNDERIES. II
In the y. 1657 The Engl. Polyglott was printed at Lond. faid to have been furreptitioufly obtained from the prefs at Paris whilft Mon/. /e Fay was printing, and before he had publifhed, The Fr. Polyglot. but the au- thority on which this affertion is built (an information fent a few years ago from fomebody at Paris) cannot in any wife ftand in competition with the learning and reputation of bifhop Walton and arch. Ujber. befides, the dates contradict 1t. The French was publifhed in 1645. The Engl/b in 1657.—a work it is, if the times and circumftances under which it was begun and per- fected be duly weighed, amazing! * but we contemplat-
ing
*'Thus much was written before the enfuing account was obligingly communicated bya curious and learned friend, Mr Will. Bowyer Fell, of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Lond.
“<< Mon/. le Fay’s Polyglott was publifhed in ten vols. ann. 1645. the Eng/. Polyglott in fix vols. ann. 1657; viz. twelve years after- wards. under Bp Walton’s picture it is faid to have been begun only in 1653. Palmer [the firft who ever dreamt of this furreption] mif- took the date of the Fr. Polyglott [he affigns to it the date of the Engi.| and then formed his conclufion that the fheets were fent into Engl. from Paris, and then met with a correfpondent, it feems, who encouraged him in his error. It is faid indeed that the Exg/i/b put out propofals for a cheaper and better edition foon after M. /e Fay’s was publifhed, which might in fome meafure hinder the fale of it. but other caufes concurred; the enormous fize of the book rendered it incon- venient for ufe, and the price of it deterred purchafers. and further the refufal of M /e Fay to publifh the work under the name of Card. Richieu, though that minifter had offered to print it at his own ex- pence, damped the fale of it. The Exg/. Polyglott in return has made but little way in France. a large paper copy was fold in 1728 to M. Colbert, the fix vols. bound in fourteen. Ca/te/lus’s lexicon which went along with it was on the common paper, and whether it was at all printed on large paper is not known. the fame were afterwards fold to M. de Seu, and are now in the collection of M. le count de Laura- guais.— De Bure, v. 1. p. 18.
The laft leaf but one of the preface to Bp Walton’s Polyglott is cancelled in many copies in which honourable mention is made of the Protector in thefe words; “Primo autem commemorandi quorum “<favore chartam a veéligalibus immunem habuimus, quod quinque ab-
hine
WOR 7
12 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
ing it no otherwife than as Lester-Founders are only to obferve that it contains the facred text in the Hebr. Samaritan, Syriac, Chaldean, Arabic, Perfic, A: thiopic, Greek, and Latin languages, all printed in their proper characters; of which we may here with greateft brevity obferve, that metal characters for the Hebr. language were firft ufed by the ews of Soncino in 1484. for the Gr.and Rom. by the Monks of Subiaco in 1465. for the Ital. by Aldus the inventor of the type in 1502. for the Arab. by Porrus of Genoa in 1516. for the Ztbiopic by Potken in 1513. and that The Congr. at Rome for the propagation of the faith in the y. 1636 had, befides thofe which we have juft now mentioned, types for the Sama- ritan, for the Syriac both Ffhito and Ejirangelo, for the Coptic, for the Armenian, for the Rabbinic Hebr. and for the Heraclean, or ancient language of the Chaldees. but Ferrarius who publifhed his Nomenclat. at Rome in 1622 ufed a very different Syriac type, and the Zthio- pic of The Congr. is not to be compared with ours. and Ludolphus, whofe abode was at Gotha fent his Lexicon to be publifhed at Lond. where it was printed by Mr Roycroft (who was printer in Orvienzals to The King) up- on the type of the Eng/. Polyg/ott, which work likewife was printed by Mr Roycroft. and we fhould take notice that a liturgy according to the rites of the Armenians was printed at Cracow by the widow of Flor. Unglerius in 1549. we have not feen it, and it may be Polifh. To
“‘hinc annis (1652) a concilio fecretiori primo conceffum poftea a fere- “<niffimo D. Proteftore ejufg; confilio, operis promovendi caufa, be- “<nigne confirmatum et continuatum erat: Quibus,” &c. in the loyal cop- ies under CA. II. the claufe ftands thus. “Juter hos effufiore boni- “<tate labores nofiros profecuti funt (preter eos quorum favore chartam a “veétigalibus immunem habuimus) Serenifs. Princeps. D. Car. Ludov. pr. “Palatin, 5c.-- Bp. Walton obtained leave to import the paper in 1652. he began his work in 1653. he publifhed it in 1657. and it is furprizing that he could get through fix fuch volumes in the fhort {pace of four years.”
AND FOUNDERIES. 13
To return to the Eng/. Polyglott.—the Hebr. and Sa- maritan are of the Eng. body. the elegant face of the Samaritan is juftly attributed by Ce/larius to the Eng- hfb, for it was firft ufed in our Po/ygloit, and by Cafellus in his Lex. Heptaglotton. it differs widely from the type ufed by Scaliger in his Emend. Temp. and by Leu/den at the end of his Schole Syriac. and from another ufed in an encomiaftic of 4br. Ecchelenfis upon F. Kircher, which type belonged to The Congr. at Rome. and which was afterwards more neatly cut by Vo/kens. the latter is in that part of our foundery which came from Mr Grover. The Syriac is Eng. likewife, and is now in the foun- dery of Mr Caflon. The Arabic is Great-primer, in our foundery; and it came from Mr Grover. The Per/fic is {fo too, being made by a few additions to the drabic alphabet, as are alfo the Turki/h and Malayan. The As thiopic is Pica; itis in Mr Tho. Fames’s foundery and came with the founderies of one of the 4udrews’s.— The Gr. Rom. and Ital. are_/m. pica and are all in our _ foundery. but as thefe are common characters there is no occafion to fpeak further of them.
Over and above the elemental characters exhibited inthe Jody of this great work, the pro/egomena furnifh us with more. namely the Rabbinical Hebr. the Syriac du- plices, Neftorian, and Eftrangelan; the Armenian; a large bodied Egypsian; the I/yrian both Cyriliian and Hiero- nymian; the Iberian; the Gothic; the Chine/e, which 1s {carce worthy of notice; and a {pecimen of the “exan- drian MS. of thefe the 4rmen. and Coptic had been ufed before in the Jutrodué. ad lectionem lingg. Oriental. publifhed chiefly for the ufe of thofe who were fub- {cribers to the publication of the Po/yg/ot in 1655. but thefe were all cut in wood, are moft of them rude and misfhaped, and the unavoidable lofs of thefe wooden alphabets has been amply recompenfed by the neater fount of Copéic ufed in the Oxford edit. of,the N. Te/t. Egyptian in the y. 1716. and by a neater in the foun-
dery
44 OF ENGLIS Hi FOUN DERS,
dery of Mr Ca/lon; and by a neater Armenian cut by the late Mr Ca/lon for the edit. of Mo/es Chorenenfis. we have however given bifh. Wa/ton’s {pecimen of the 4/exan- drian fet in metal that it may be compared with his, and with another engraved on copper to be feen in Dr Grabe’s prolegomena to the Septuagint publifhed from the Alexandr. MS.
The Ambaric of Caftellus feems to be metal, and the fame which was ufed in the Orat. Dnica to\vyhor7 ©, TodkvpopdG- printed by B. M. in 1713. the two firft fheets of which were printed “in typographéo inftruc- “tiffimo inclyte Acad. Oxon. cuj fauftiffima queq; “‘comprecator quifquis eft qui patriam amat et bonam “mentem colit.” this little work was pirated abroad, and moftly engraved on copper. we take notice of this to fhew how much in metal types we were then fuperior to our neighbours. the languages comprized in thefe 2 fheets are Hebr.Sam.Chald. Syr. Arab. Perf. Turk.T artar. Malayan, Coptic, Aithiop. Ambaric (the moft pure and refined dialect of the language of the Ady//ines), Runic, Gothic, Ilandic, and Sclavonian.
F, Kircher a jefuit of Fuld,a man of note in his time, was the firft who applied himfelf to the ftudy of the Coptic language. he publifhed his Prodromus Coptus at Rome in 1636. for this his memory has been unworthily and abufively treated bya countryman of ours, who at- tributes the endeavours of F. Kirch. toambition and vain glory, and a defire of making an oftentatious fhew of learning which he did not poffefs. but what ftimulated Mr Wilkins to purfue thofe ftudies which hecenfured in F, Kircher? a part at leaft of the ingredients of which he compofes the affiduous jefuit, which ever have been and ever will be the {pur to recondite literature. and poor enough are the rewards of the labour. Mr WiI- kins’s prof{pect was enlarged by ftanding uponthefhoul- - ders of a jefuit. it therefore was difingenuous in him to depreciate the eminence which opened his view: thofe
who
AND FOUNDERIES. rs
who {trike out new paths, however they may err, de- {erve commendation; more efpecially from thofe who tread in their fteps.
Mr Wilkins publifhed the Copz. Te/f. at Oxfd. in1716. with the types and at the charge of the Univ. upon a pica letter cut at the expence of bifh. Fe// for printing the Cop. Teftament intended to have been publifhed by Dr Marefchal. they were cut from acharacter delineated by Mr Wheeler, rect. of St. Ebb’s in Oxfd. the author of the Oxfd. Almanac for the y. 1673, of which near 30000 were printed and all fold on account of the novelty and of the title, to the prejudice of the fale of the other al- _manacs; which induced the Lond. bookfellers to buy off the copy for the future. fo a fheet almanac only on copper has fince that time been annually publifhed by the Curators of the Sheldonian in the form and fize wherein we have it now. but the defign is either altered now or was miftaken then. the prints were deemed hieroglyphical, and a celebrated Vice-Ch. was exam- ined upon the furmife, and was at laft very decently difmiffed thus; “if you mean nothing you are fools: if “you mean any thing you are knaves.” fince that time to avoid offence the fubject has been a repetita crambe
of the edifices of the Univ.
We have done for the prefent with the Oriental and Occidental languages, and come now to the Sepentrio- nal, the reftorer (if not more than the reftorer) of the knowledge of which languages in Eng/. was Mr Francis Funius the fon of Mr Francis Funius the theologift of Heidelberg. and Mr Junius though a foreigner muft with ushave preference. for the Goshic and Saxon Go/pels pub- — lithed by Dr Mare/chal (Mr ‘funius who was Dr Mare/- chal’s inftructor muft fuftain no injury by our attribut- ing to One a joint work of Both, printed with the types and at the charge of Mr ‘funius ) were printed at Dort, and Dr Mare/ch. brought newtypes into the kingdom: but in the y. 1654 Mr Funius being then at Am/flerdam
procured
1659.
1662.
1 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
procured a fet of “Saxonic types to be cut matriculated “and caft, thinking himfelf enabled by fome good fub- “fidyes which he had met with in Germany to add “fomething to that which had been before done by “ Melchior Goldaftus and Marquardus Freberus in Fran- “cic and Alemannic antiquity.” as he fays in a letter to Mr Selden, a copy of which may be feen in the preface to Dr Hickes’s Thefaurus.
Thefe types Mr Funius brought with him into Eng/. and with them types for the Gothic, Runic, Dani/h, Ilandic, Greek, Roman, Italic,and Eng.(the Eng. ofa very pretty face[)], all caft to a pica body that they might ftand together. but he brought the letter only without punches or matrices, and in the y. 1677. gave them with a fount of Eng. Swedifh to the Univ. of Oxford where now they are.
In the mean time Mr Dod/worth and Sir William Dugdale had publifhed the Mona/ticon, and Mr Somner his Saxon Ditionary, which was printed at Oxford in the y- 1659 with the Univ. types, though Mr Somner had from the death of Mr Wheelock enjoyed, and did then enjoy, the falary appertaining to the Saxon J/eéture founded at Cambridge by Sir Hen. Spelman: for which the moft probable reafon we can affign is this; that the Univ. of Cambr. had not letter fuited to the purpofe. for though Mr Wheelock’s edit. of Bede’s ecclefiaftical hift. publifhed in 1644 was printed at Cambr. it was print- ed on a type too large for a dictionary. the one was Great Primer the other Pica. The Mona/ticon was printed with the types of Richard Hodgkin/one, one of the print- ers nominated by the decree of Szar-ch. of 1637. the Saxon 1s pica, by whom cut we know not.
Formed upon the principles of that decree ann. 14 Car. II. an act pafled for regulating of Printing more bur- thenfome to learning and more fubverfive of the Liberty of the Prefs than the decree itfelf, which together with other burthens occafioned the diffolution of the Court.
by
>
AND FOUNDERIES. 17
by this act the number of Mafter-Founders was again reftrained to Four, and the number of Mafter-Printers to Twenty (exclufively of The King’s printers and the printers for the Univerfities) to be appointed by the archb. of Cant. and the bifh. of Lond. and no founder was to caft any letter for printing, no joiner to make any prefs, no {mith to forge any iron-work for a prefs, no perfon to bring from parts beyond the feas any let-
ters founded or caft for printing, nor any perfon to buy
any letters or any other materials belonging unto printing without application to the Maft.and Wardens of the Comp. of Stationers.
This was a probationary act for two years only, and 16 ejufd. Car. was continued until the end of the next feffion of parl. and again until the end of the next fef- fion. and 17 e7u/d. until the end of the firft feff. of the next parl. it was revived 1 ac. II. to continue in force for feven years, and from thence to the end of the next feffion, when it expired in 1693, and we hear no more of it.
Notwithftanding thefe reftraints Mr Moxon writing in the y. 1683 informs us “that the number of foun- “ders and printers were grown very many, infomuch “that for the more eafy managing of typography the ‘operators had found it neceflary to divide it into the “feveral trades of The Ma/fter-Printer, the Leitter-cutter, “the Letter-cafter, the Letter-dreffer, the Compofitor, the “ Corretor, the Prefs man, the Ink-maker, befides feveral “other trades which they take into their affiftance, as “the Smith, the Joiner, &c.”
But as to Letter-cutting which is our immediate fub- ject, the fame ingenious artift informs us “that it was “a handy-work at that time kept fo concealed among “the artificers of it that he could not learn any one “had taught it any other; but every one that had ufed “it learnt it of his own genuine inclination. therefore, “though he could not defcribe the general practice of
‘““workmen,
1664.
1685.
16935 -
18 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
“workmen, yet the rules he followed he fhews, and “had as good an opinion of thofe rules as thofe had “that were fhyeft of difcovering theirs. for indeed “by the appearance of fome work done a judicious “eye might doubt whether they went by any rule at “all, though geometric rules in no practice whatever “ought to be more nicely or exactly obferved than in
<eethigyr And as this very curious artizan has given us the cer- tain {tate of printing in his time, we fhall take occafion to obferve that the bodies moft of ufe in Eng/. when he wrote were Great-canon, Two-line Eng. Double-pica, Great-primer, ENGLISH, Pica, Long-primer, Bre- vier. -- finall-pica, nonpareil, and pearl. the Dutch he fays had feveral other bodies, but* he thoughtthem not worth
*The Dutch bodies at this time were Dubbelve tert/ Dubbelve Auguttiin/ Dubbelve fMediaen/ Dubbelve Defcendiaen/ Parpile kanon/ called by Vokens Groote hanon/ Kipne kanon/ Afcenvdo- nica/ Paragon/ Cert/ Augultiin/ Groote mediaen/ SMeviaen/ Defcendiaen/ Groote Garmont/ Garmont/ Bourgesis/ BGrevier/ Colonel/ Jolp/ Cnglele nonpareil/ fo nonpareil was firft cut by the Engl. Weerel/ and Wobijn, in all 22. thefe were Van Dyck’s bodies. but Vofkens gvocted and &lpned moft of them, adding thereto a new named body Diamant, which in Dutch (the firft face cut upon it) is pretty, and advancing the number to 34.
But the Germans, to whofe countryman Fau/ the world is indebted for the noble art, have in this incorrectnefs of workmanfhip exceeded even the Dutch; and had feveral years ago (if a written paper which feems to bea lift taken from one of their fpecimens may be depended on) without remorfe run on with etne andere and noch eine andere to the ftretch of 62.
And here we may obferve that Garmont as they call it has it’s name from Claude Garramont who had been taught by Tory; and @ranjon from Rob. Granjon who was a Fr. Founder likewife. moft probably it may be fo with Gaillard too. and thefe are the only types which bear the name of their parents. but @ranjon is not a body but a face. not the Italic as Van Dyck has it, but the Fr. curfive of that age, and was firft cut by Granjon in 1558, ut cribentis manum quam proximeé redderet ; ut /criptu-
i ram
AND FOUNDERIES. 19
worth naming.— we think fo too; and could wifh that all but the Regulars were expunged from our typogra- phy. we are aware of the reafon which will be urged for retaining them, but it is not a reafon which will bear the teft of argument: and this we hope is the only in- {tance in which we do not {peak as Letter-founders. for to
confefs
ram ementiretur impreffio; et gd manufatium, an typis excuffum fuerit poftea poffet dubitari. and he obtained a prohibition from the Fr. King for- bidding any one within the realm to prefume to imitate it. Plantin ufed a type of the fame fort in 1564, gu’ ilpeu/? auffi fervir a la jeuneffe d’exemplaire pour apprendre a bien former &S lire VESCRITURE @ LA MAEN, which is the proper name of this type. the Dutch have a letter of the fame fort for the cur/ive of their nation, cut by Vo/kens, and called CESCHREVEN. and fo have the Eng/. which is vulgarly called ScriptTo, becaufe it imitates the common writing-hand; whereas Secretary with us imitates the curfive of the law.
But notwithftanding this deviation from the true ftandard, the Dutch have been eminently remarkable for “the true fhape of their letters; “‘which were formed fo exactly of the mathematical regular figures, “< fraight lines, circles, and arches of circles, and with fuch a commodious
-_“fatnefs for relieving the eye, and with fuch true placing the fass and “Jeans, and with fuch {weet driving them into one another, and with “all the accomplifhments which could render ter regular and beau- “tiful,” that Mr Moxon {et himfelf to anatomize, and with moft minute exactnefs to examine the proportion of every part and member of the letter of Chr. van Dyck of Amfierdam: “and was fo well pleafed with “the harmony and decorum of their fymmetrie, and found fo much “regularity in every part, and good reafon for his order and method,” that he founded his own proportions and rules upon his obferva- tions on the letter of Van Dyck. Van Dyck agreeably to that which has been before obferved touching the divifion of typography into various branches, was a letter-cutter only, his founder was Fos. Bus, who caft in the houfe of Fo/eph Athias a jew in Swanenburg-ftraet, and after- wards op de Iieuwe Heere Gracht over ve WPlantagie.
Diderich or Dirk Vofkens came after van Dyck. his gteterpe was carried on by himfelf; afterwards by himfelf and his fon; and afterwards by his widow and fon. they all lived op Ye Bloemgragt. Vofeens was the firft we know of the Dutch founders who had types for the more recondite languages. he had Hebr. Biblical, Ma/oretical and Dutch; Samaritan, Arab. Coptic, Sclavonian, Runic, and Angl-Sax. his foundery is thought to have come by purchafe to Myuh. Fohbn/fon a captain in the army, and a letter-founder at The Hague. he had a
fon
20 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
confefs the truth, the irregular bodies owe their origin to the unfkilfulnefs of workmen, who when they had cut a fount which happenéd to vary from the intended ftandard gave it the name of a beauty, and palmed it upon the printers as a purpofed novelty.—fuch are Paragon, Nonpareil, Pearl, Minion, Robyn,and Diamond.
Of the Regular bodies we would fay fomething, and fhould think ourfelves fortunate could we {peak agree- ably to our wifhes. but the fhortnefs of the time allowed -by the prefent occafion will not admit a refort to libra- ries from whence alone our defired fatisfaction is to be obtained. we muft therefore be content to mention
fon whofe chriftian name was Vo/kens, as it is the cuftom of the Durch to give their children names from any perfon with whom they have dealings themfelves.
—— Rolij a German, but refident at Am/ierdam, is the next. he was living in 1710. he cut and funk for Vo/eens’s foundery, and the work of Ro/ij was the beginning of our foundery.
Fob. Philippi van Cupi of Am/rerdam was his contemporary. and thefe two feem to have been the only Letter-cutters at that time in Ho//and: for Athias and Vo/kens, and another of the fame time whofe name we know not, were founders only.—the foundery of Van Cupi has been juft now fold difperfedly.
Le fieur Ludolphe Wetftein of Amfterdam died in 1742. and his foun- dery, remarkable for the elegance of the Greek which had been in the fam. of the Wet/feins only for many years, was in the year 1743 purchafed by Lfaac and lean Enjchede \etter-founders at Haerlem. it has been obferved that We#/ein’s letter has an excellence which can- not appear upon paper: it is fo deeply counter-punched that it will far exceed in duration the letter of other founders.
Lfaac Vander Putte was another of Am/fferdam. he lived op Ye Goor- burgwal over ve J2ieuwe Merk. his fucceflor was H. Vander Putte of whofe exec. the foundery was purchafed by the brothers Plas van Amfel living at Am/fferd. in 1767.
To thefe are to be added Mynh. R. C. Alberts and H. Uytwerf founders at Te Hague (whofe letter was cut and funk chiefly by van Cupi) a new foundery; Mynh. F. M. Fleifchman, 1733 and 1756; Mynh, Weyer, a \etter-founder and notary in Calbvaert-flr, 4m/fer- dam, 17553 and Mynh. Vander Velder living at The Hague in 1760. De Hont likewife was a founder at T/e Hague. he had a fon who was in partnerfhip with Mr Becket in The Strand, Lond. and this is all we can fay at prefent of the Dusch founders. that
AND FOUNDERIES. 21
that only in which we think we fhall be fupported again{t others who have fpoken on the fame fubject.
Firft then,as to that which Mr Mowon calls Great Ca- non: without difputing whether thisisa regular body or an irregular body (indeed we think it no body at all, but that being above the {cale it fhould be ranked under the denomination of ##e-/erter) our objection is to the epithet Great, becaufe the Engli/h know no Little-canon in contradiftinction to it. but greater is our objection to the name by which it has of late years been called, French Canon: an appellation by whom or when or wherefore introduced we pretend not to know: only _thatit has been introduced fince the y. 1695. the typo- graphers of our neighbouring nations are not fo cour- teous or fo juft as to give the name of our country to the bodies which are our own. whencefoever therefore this letter came, plain Canon fhould be its name. and it is fo called, as has been faid, becaufe it was firft ufed in printing fome Canons of the church. but this feems to be a miftake arifing from a falfe idea annexed to an equivocal word, and the letter might with equal appear- ance of truth have been faid to have received its name from The Great Gun of Ghent.
Thecurious Mon/. Torin drops fomething which fug- gefts a better reafon. he divides ty pographical letter into la lettre de forme and Ja lettre baftarde; the former of which he tells us was called Canon. the inference is that the former were cut /ecundum normam, the latter by no rule at all: as Bourgeoife, which amongft other letter of his time he mentions. his time was the y. 1529. fo the antiquity of Bourgeoi/fe is pretty nearly afcertained.
It would be in vain to deny that we endeavour to make /e lettre qu’on diéi Canon comprehend the regular bodies; and we think Mon/. Torin’s expreffion will juf- tify the attempt.--we have never feen the Champfleury. this which we would avail ourfelves of is taken from fome extracts given us by Mr Maittaire, who did not
enter
22 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
enter into the articles of founders and founderies {o mi- nutely as we could with he had, thinking them in all prob- ability beyond his province, which was in the vulgar fenfe typography. — if our inference be juft, the letter called Canon has ufurped a general denomination, and appro- priatedit to itfelfalone. as a further proof that it has, we urge that the French have four fizes of letter which bear this name, /egros double, le double, le gros,and le petit Canon: the laft of which anfwers to our Two-/-Eng/.— we may yet be wrong: but we fhew the foundation upon which we build. and if we are wrong fhall gladly be corrected.
A word more we muft in juftice add to that which hath taken up much length already: the Dutch call our Two-line-Gr-primer Kanon and the letter which is called Fr. Canon they callfMarps-Romepn: the French therefore might have cut a Roman letter of this dimen- fion furpaffing in beauty the type of other founders.
Two-line-Englh/b, though by the name it fhould feem to be a body derivative, is the fame which the Germans once called Prima; and it was the firft or largeftin the {cale of bodies. fo that here too our objection lies againft the name, which is incongruous and improper, as it makes the body a derivative which ought to be and was and is a primitive.
To Double-pica the Secunda of the Germans, our ob- jection as to the name is fimilar; but the reafon of the objection differs. Double-pica does not, as to juftify the propriety of the name it ought to do, anfwer to two lines of Pica. therefore the appellation is improper.
Great-primer the Tertia of the Germans, being a name indifputably Exgi/b,andindifputably fixed on account of fome primer printed on a body of this fize, muft be a name of fome antiquity in the eras of Eng/li/h typo- graphy,and cannot be much pofterior though it may be anterior to The Reformation.
ENGLISH is our certain guide: a body whofe name profeffes it to be our own. the Germans call
1t
AND FOUNDERIES. 23
it MITSEL or the middle fize, thereby plainly in- dicating as the truth really was, that as there were Prima Secunda and Tertia above it, there were Quinta Sexta and Septima below it, and limiting thereby the number of bodies to feven.
Pica is the next: the fize which came neareft to or moft refembled The Pie; and being the literal tranfla- tion of that word into Lain the body mutt be claimed as ours. for though fomething like it may be found elfewhere the ftandard is not the fame. The Pie was a table fhewing the courfe of the fervice of the Church in the times of darknefs. it was called The Pie becaufe _it was written in letters black and red; as the Friars de Pica were fo named from their parti-coloured rai- ment black and white, the plumage of A Magpie. “the “number and hardnefs of the rules of this Pe and the “manifold changings of the fervice were,” as the pre- face to our liturgy well expreffes it, “the caufe that to “turn the book only was fo hard and intricate a matter “that many times there was more bufinefs to find out “‘what fhould be read than to read it when it fhould be “found out.” in the room of this pie was fubftituted a calendar plain and eafy to be underftood; the fame which is prefixed to The Englifh Liturgy. * Pica there-
fore is coeval with Great Primer.
And
* An example of the rules of Te Pie may not be unacceptable, as the pie is but flenderly touched upon by any of our ritualift’s, and our account of it may introduce fome literary anecdotes which are not generally known. we take our example from the hyemal part of the Breviary of Sarum printed in the y. 1555. in which after the denedic- tio aq. et panis we have this prohemie :
“Tn nomine fanéte & individue Trinitatis.
@_ Incipit ordo breviarij feu portiforij fecundum morem & con- fuetudinem ecclefie Sarum Anglicane: vna cum ordinali fuo quod vfitato vocabulo dicitur Pica five direCtorium facerdotum. in tem- pore pafchali Pars Hyemalis.
@ Pica
24 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
And fo is Long-primer. but we cannot fo eafily ac- count for the epithet Long prefixed. yet as there is no- thing @. Pica ve Vominica prima Avuentus,
Littera Dominicalis A. tij Vecembris tata cantetur bpftoria Alpi- ciens, fecunve vefpere erunt de fancto Ofmundo cum pleno ferni, in craft, € folen. memo, De acta, Ve Do. t Ve fancta maria cum an, Aue Marla,
Fe. 2 De fancto Ofmunvo ir lect. omnia Ve communt ynius con- feffo. t ponti. fecunde veflp. erunt ve comme, ¢ memo, De Lancto. De octa, De aduentu ¢ Ve fancta maria cum an, Aue maria. Seria, 3 5. ¢ fabba, De comme. t WR. fe. pretermittantur ¢ miffa de octa. fancti Andree dicitur in capo.
Littera vo. 5. 5 halen. Decembris tota cantetur, te.
But the rule for this year was not the rule for the next. the fervice varied according to different couplings of the dominical letter with the golden number. the form of worfhip was befides perplexed by fundry divifions and fubdivifions of the feftivals into certain degrees and ranks of honour; as into Fe/?. dup/. and Fe/?. fimp/. the former of which were fubdivided into principal. dupl— majus dupl. — invit. fimpl. ix vel iif Je. and the Sundays into dominici principaliter privilegiat.— majus privilegiat. — minus privilegiat.—inferius privilegiat.— And the fervice was again interrupted by the intervention of anniverfaries and commemorations, and again perplexed by ofaves and mourns and thuri- Jications which were to be used at one time and not at another time; by choral and non choral; and again diftracted by compound Services when different fervices enjoined fhould happen to fall in and clafh with one another: diftinctions tending more and more to make “ con- fufion worfe confounded.” |
A larger account of the church-fervice of thefe times might here be given, and we with it were not foreign from our prefent purpofe, for the fame reafon which Mr Foxe briefly treating on this subject in his Martyrology, fub ann. 1413 alledges “that the order and man- “ner of it may not be unknown to our pofterity ” but for greater fatisfaction we mutt refer the inquifitive to the Direforium facerdotum quem [librum] pica Sarum vulgo vocitat clerus; a book containing all thefe niceties, and more than once printed by our Exg/. printers; as by Caxton without a date, by Pynfon in 1498, and again in 1508. of Mr Caxton’s edit. we may almoft fay as Buxtorf, or Reland, or fomebody elfe fays of the Maéation-book of the Jews worded in Dutch but printed in Majfket; “‘legat qui vult aut qui poteff.” we mean no more than to intimate that it abounds in abbreviations peculiar to the fubject, and that if we remember rightly, it requires fome {kill in Pica to read it with fluency.
This
AND FOUNDERIES. ay
thing in the letter which bears pre-eminence of length, it fhould feem to have received its name from fome par-
ticular primer printed upon that body, either in lines — at length and not in columns, or in a length of page difproportionate to the breadth or more probably yet from the firft primer fet out a /ong which was printed on this body. to explain the meaning of which ex- preffion we muft add to that which we have before faid of the rules of the pie the title of 4 prymer of Salifbury ufe fet out a long by Robert Valentine at Rouen in the y.1555. but it happens that the book is printed on another body, and Valentine was very carelefs, or _ refiding in Normandy had forgot his native language; for thus runs his title (his prpmer of Salifburp bfe is fe tout a long withoutonpfer chpng/ with manp ptapers/ ¢ goodlp pittures in the kalendet/ in the matins of our ladp in the boures of the
This book was compiled, though not originally, by Clem. de Mayde~ fron a brigittine fryar, but a brother, as Bifhop Tanner fays, of the houfe at Hounde/low which was a houfe of Trinitarians, and this feeming contradiction we cannot immediately reconcile. the book was intrufted by the C4. of Sarum to Mr Clarke precentor in the King’s coll. Cambr. to be corrected and made conformable to the True Ordinal of that church. and this correction was occafioned by a difpute, warm at that time, whether T4e Fe/tival of Corp. Chr. with an ofave fhould be cele- brated cum regimine chori or fine regimine chori, the former of which was the practice of the C’. of Sarum. then follows a defen/orium of this direc- tory, and afterwards the tract called Crede Michientitled thus; Seguentes articult ventilati funt et approbati per canonicos eccl. Sarum; et in primo de oftabis Corp. Chr. and at the end the reafon of the appellation Crede Michi is {aid to be, that as no rule is fet down in that tra€t which had not been thoroughly debated and approved by the Canons of Sarum and other {kilful men, and confirmed by their hands and feals, whoever fhall obferve thofe rules fhall fcarcely err in the fervice of God.
To conclude with the breviary with which this note began: con- fidering the infpection under which it muft have been fet forth the colophon may deferve a fmile.—reuiarium feu Portiforium av blum ecclefie Davifburienfis Lonvini impreffum per Denvicus Kyngyfton et Henricus Sutton tppographi anno wnj sHilleflima ce. but this was corrected in the ed. printed the next year.
crofie,
26 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
crofle/ in thes / vif pfalmes and in the Dyage. And benetulp emprpnted at Rouen. 2.D.1.0,* there is another with the fame title faid to have been printed by Gowghe in 1535, for no other reafon as we can perceive than that the almanac for xx years begins with the y. 1535. but neither of thefe gives name to our body; for the latter of thefe is gr. primer, the for- mer pica.
Laftly, Brevier is coeval with the three; Greas-pri- mer, Pica,and Long-primer; all four taking their names from the fervice-books of the Church: the Brevier being the body on which the firft breviary was printed, or a body firft ufed in printing a breviary, or a body on which breviaries were moft commonly printed.
And thefe are the regu/ar bodies. if any irregular bo- dies are to be allowed, they can be no other than Zwo- line-Pica, Paragon, Small-pica, and Bourgeoi/e, for thefe only are in fizeintermediate. for the reft,as weexcluded Canon becaufe it is above the fcale, fo we exclude Minion, Nonpareil, Pearl, Ruby and Diamond, fo named from their {mallnefs and fancied prettinefs, becaufe they are below it.
We return from this digreffion to the Sepientrional languages, the ftudy of which after the death of Mr Junius was cultivated with greater ardour through the
* After the calendar follows this traét;
This maner to Ipvewell: veuoutlp and falutarilp merp vape for all perfones of meane eflate Comppled bp matiire Fohan quentin Voctour in Vininite at Paris. Cranflated out of frenche in to eng: Ipthe bp Robert Copland printer at London,
The colophon.
Erpliciunt hove beatifime virginis Marie / fecundum vfam Sarum / totaliter ad longum: cum ovationi beate Brigive / cum multts alijs ovationibus / Jmprefle per Fohannem le pret tmpen- fis honefliffimi birt Roberti valentint fuam officinam tenentis in porticu bibliopolarum jurta evem bte Marie. fl. D. L. G.
means
AND FOUNDERIES. 27
means and by the labour of Dr Hickes, who having received the tincture from Dr Marefchal Rect. of Linc. coll. of which coll. Dr Hickes was fellow, was ex- cited by Bz/h. Fell to the publication of the Fn/itutiones Gramm. Anglo-Sax. et Mafo-Goth. printed at Oxon in 1689. but the Doctor after the Revolution entered into the inmoft recefles of the Borealian languages, in- {tigated thereunto principally by Dr Kennet, that Dr Fickes’s mind and pen might be diverted from the po- litics of the time. Dr Hickes was a Nonjuror, Dr Kennet a Whig, afterwards bifhop of Pererd.
The The/aurus lingg. vett. Sepientr. came forth from the Sheldonian in 1705. a work replete with learning and antiquity. the conftituent part are grammars for the Ma/ogothic, Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Teutonic and [flan- dic languages: but this is a very inadequate defcription of the work. it was epitomiz’d by Mr Wotton ina Con- Jpetius brevis tranflated into Engl. by Mr Shelton for his own improvement, and publifhed to fhew that one of his Majefty’s juftices of the peace may have fenfe and a tafte for learning. further ufe of the publication we know not: for thofe who feek after this or any other fort of knowledge will have recourfe to the originals.
In Dr Hickes’s time there was as it were a profluvium of Saxonifis {pringing all from the fame fountain; Te
ueen’s College in the Univ. of Oxford, the nurfing mother of Aréioans,—and of us; who are joyful upon every re- membrance to make acknowledgement of love unfeigned To the Houfe of Eglesfield. Bifhop Tanner, Bith. Nicol/on, Bith. Gibjon, Mr Thwaites, MrElfiob, Mr Benfon, Mr Raw- linfon, were the lights of Auglo-Saxonic literature; Mr Thwaites the principal, the accurate editor of The Saxon Heptateuch. with them muft be numbered Dr W111. Hop- kins canon of Worc. Mr Humphrey Wanley (of Univ. coll. we think) author of the hiftorical and critical cata- logue of the Sepsentrional mf. remaining in Eng/. which makes the latter part of Dr Hickes’s The/aurus, libra-
rian
28 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
rian to The E. of Oxf-and fon of the rev. Nathaniel Wan- ley rect. of Trin. parifh in the city of Coventry, and col- lector of The Wonders of the Little W orld,---anda young lady Mifs Eliz. Elfiob, the fitter of Mr E/fob, and the in- defeffa comes of his ftudies; a female ftudent in The Univ. The defire of the partifans was that the ladies truly fhould be taught the language of their progenitors, and Mi/s Elficoh was to have been the inftrument of their inftruction. her grammar was publifhedin the y. 1715. | She procured a fount of Eng. Saxon to be cut accor- ding to her own delineation from the mf. of the times. they were cut by Mr Robert Andrews at the expence of the Earl of Macclesfield. the punches and matrices are now in The Clarendonian, a prefent made at the inftance of one who would gladly fhew a greater in- {tance of affection, by Mr Will. Bowyer, A Fell. of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Lond. a typographer of the Sze- phanian age; afon of Alma Cant. but a letter of Mr Bowyer’s will {peak better than we can {peak for him; and we infert it with the greater pleafure, as it men- tions with honour thofe who live in our efteem.
EE 4 Dec. 1753.
I make bold to tranfmit to Oxford the Saxon Punches and Matrices which you were pleafed to intimate would not be unacceptable to that learned body. it would be a great fatisfaction to me if I could by thefe means perpetuate my obligations to that Noble Per- fonage to whose munificence I am originally indebted for them; the late Lord Chief Fuftice Parker, after- wards Earl of Macclesfield: who among the numer- ous benefactors which my father met with after his houfe was burnt in 1712-3 generoufly procured thefe types to be cut to enable him to print Mrs E//fob’s Saxon Grammar.--- England had not then the advan- tage of fuch an artift in letter-cutting as hath fince
7 arifen,
AND FOUNDERIES. 29
arifen, and it is to be lamented that the execution of thefe is not equal to the intention of the Noble Donor, and I now add, to the place in which they are to be repofited. however I efteem it a peculiar happinefs that as my father received them from a great patron of learning, his fon configns them to the greateft femi- nary of it; and that he is,
SIR,
ad
Your moft obliged friend, and humble fervant, Will. Bowyer.”
Thistype Mis E/fob ufed in her grammar,and in her grammar only. in her capital undertaking, the publica- tion of The Saxon Homilies, begun and left unfinifhed, whether becaufe the type was thought unfightly to politer eyes, or whether becaufe The Univ. of Oxf. had cafta new letter that fhe might print thework withthem, or whether (as fhe expreffes herfelf in a letter to her uncle Dr El/iob) becaufe “women are allowed the privi- lege of appearing in a richer garb and finer ornaments than men”, fhe ufeda Saxon of the modern garb. but not one of thefe reafons is of any weight with an antiquary, who will always prefer the natural face to “ richer garb and finer ornaments”’. and on his fide is reafon uncon- trovertible. — {peaking in the fenfe in which we {peak the Sax. nation and the Saw. language are extinct, and their characters fhould be reprefented as they were exprefled by thofe who ufed them. Goshic and Hunnic may be ex- preffed in elegant modern Rom. or Jtal. but were a Goth or an Hunn to return from the place to which they are gone, they would fay their language was in mafquerade, and they muft be taught to read their native tongues.
Mis Ejfiob was a northern lady ofan antient family and a genteel fortune, but fhe purfued too much the drug called learning, and in that purfuit failed of be- _ ing careful of an one thing neceffary. in her latter years fhe was tutorefs 1n the fam. of Te Duke of Port-
land,
30 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
land, where we have vifited her in her fleeping-room at Bulfrode, farrounded with books and dirtinefs the ufual appendages of folk of learning. but if any one defires to fee her as fhe was when fhe was the favour- ite of Dr Hud/on and the Oxonians they may view her pourtraiture in the initial G of Te Enghi/b-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St Gregory. the countenance of S: Greg. in the Saxon Jq is taken from Mr Thwaites, and both were engraved by Gridelin, though Mich. Bur- ghers* was at that time engraver to The Univ.
The progeny of the 4ug/o-Saxon, which follows next in courfe, is numerous. but we fhall mention no more than we know to have been cut and funk. purfuing therefore the defcent from the fount of Mi/s Elfod, which though it approaches nearly to the o/d Saxon has yet fome tincture of the innovations brought by K. Alfred from Rome and by K. Edward the conf. from Nor- mandy, all whichcoalefcing formed the Engi/b hand, we come to the “uglo-Norman, of which in our foundery are two founts Great-primer and Eng. both capitals, of the form ufed for fome centuries after the ingrefs of William for inf{criptions on grave-ftones, and for ini- tials in mff. and fometimes for feneftral infcriptions in the painted windows of churches. though for the latter the church-text was the proper and moft ufual hand. as fufile types they are quite uncommon. for we never faw any but our own, nor ever knew the type to be ufed but by a gent. of the Soc. of Antiquaries to amufe himfelf with their children by adoption.
* He lived in a tenement belonging to The Queen’s Coll. and called Shoppa fexta, which with the reft of the /bopp¢ in number ten is now taken into the {cite of the coll. the front wall of which ftands upon the foundations of the decem /boppe. we knew his neice Dufch-built and in mean condition. fhé ironed for us -- fo likewife one Fanny, a neice of Auth. Hiftoriograph. was our bed-maker, more we could men- tion contemporaries, and of the race of contemporaries, in their time in literary eftimation. but a concern for the illiberal offices to which
fortune had fubjected them impofes filence. The
AND FOUNDERIES. 31
The Engi/b formed by a coalition of the Saxon and the Norman hall facceed; though in ftrictnefs it ought to have precedence. it is a common and well known character. fo no more need be faid of it.
It’s derivative branches for which fufiletypes have been prepared are The /et Court, the ba/e Secretary, and the running Secretary. of the /et Court we have two founts, Double-pica and Eng. of the running Secretary one fount Great-Primer.— The ba/e Secretary is not our’s. it has been cut by Mr Cottrel on a Two-lne Eng. body. it is the common engroffling hand formed from the srue Secretary by rounding the points to fave time; in which too a kind of round Text is ufed inftead of the /guare Text of the /guare Secr. and is called German Text.
The Court we never faw upon paper. nor is it likely that we ever fhall; the legiflature of the y.1733 having, on petitions from the juftices of the peace, gentlemen, grand-jury and freeholders of the Ea/t and North and Weft ridings of the county of York thought it meet and requifite to abolifh a character which they could not read: a grand and noble character adapted for informa- tion to pofterity. the character in which the records of the realm are written.
Their petitions fet forth that grand-jury-men were obliged to make their prefentments ina language which they did not underftand, and in acharacter unknown to any but the learned in the law; and for the juftices, that when their procedings were to be removed by a certio- rari the returns were to be made in the fame language and character unknown, which put their worfhips togreat expence in feeing counfel to draw the fame; and they pray that thefe grievances may be taken into confideration, and fuch remedy be granted, as to the houfe fhall feem meet. the confideration was referred toacommitteewho ) 22 Febr.1 730-1 reported“ T hat the proceedings of the “law being in law-/azn abbreviated and written in court- “hands and characters unintelligible and not legible
ce to
32 OF ENGLISH POUNDERS,
“to the moft part of the perfons concerned efpecially “in criminal cafes are the great caufe of the delay of “juftice, and occafion moft dangerous frauds.” and it is ordered that a bill be brought in upon the faid refolutions (for there are more, but they don’t concern us) agreed to by the houfe.
And had thefe honeft gentlemen who thus confeffed their ignorance been indulged with the liberty of pur- fuing an hen-rooft-robbery in the language of she ridings, there would be no great caufe of complaint; but the bill out-ftrips the refolutions: it goes to mat- ters of the higheft confequence, and makes that al- teration in the law, which pofterity will ever rue.
The da/e and running Secretary however ftill furvive, the poor remains of the Law-hands of England, and bear a part confiderable in the modern education of anattor- ney’s clerk.— fome of our running Secr.is ufed for fym- bols by Mr Oughtred in his Clavis Maz. printed by Leon. Litchfield under the infpection of Dr Walls in 1693 --- but of this running Secretary a word more is to be added: it feems to [be] an imitation of a type of Granjon which has been mentioned before* (or Granjon’s an imitation of that)as will appear by comparing ours with the Hore b. Virg. printed by him at Parisin 1558; the only book which we have of Granjon’s, and it efcaped our remembranceat the time when that note was written. fo there may be a miftake in the fenfe inwhich that part of the note is conceived, “that /’e/criture 4 la main was the common-hand-writing of the people,” which Gran- jon’s certainly is not. as for Plantin’s we never fawit. our Secretary is the /aw-curfive of the reign of Qu. Ehiz.
Still further dwindling we come to bafer characters in ufe amongft us.
Union-pear! is a letter of fancy. it is Eng. and of a recent date. for nothing exactly correfpondent is given us amongft the whims of 2ciar of Saragofa the Cocker vibe TOs De
of
Se ae ae” ee ee a
AND FOUNDERIES. 33
of the Spaniards in 1550. it receives the name from the pearls which grow in couples, to which the nodules in the letter were conceived to bear fome refemblance. though it does not feem to have been intended for that denomination by him who cut it, but like the bodies Paragon, Nonpareil, &Sc.to have been named after it was finifhed according to the fancy of the cutter; though it has been faid that the name of this letter is Union-only, and that it was fo named becaufe it was cut for a poem to be infcribed to 9, Anne at the time of the Union of England and Scotland. but this too muft be a miftake arifing from the equivocal, unlefs the panegyrifts began where they fhould have ended, and prepared the type before they had compofed the poem, or confidered whether the acquifition would foar to poetry; for the poem did not appear. the matrices came in Mr Grover’s foundery. The fvenchare reviving thisand other letters of fancy which in titles have an effect not unpleafing.
The Curforial is a flimfey type imitating a p/eudo- Italian hand-writing, and fitted for ladies and beaux- candidates for fair places donative, who courta platten to fave unneceflary trouble and to conceal their man- agement of a pen. of this are feven founts in our foun- dery, and no other Engi/b founder has at prefent any. but Mr Cottrel and Mr Fack/on are both cutting new founts refembling the common round-hand of the Eng. writing-{chools.
The Hibernian was cut in England by Mr Moxon for the edit. of Bp Bedel’s tranflation of the Old Teft. in 1685, the only type of that language we ever faw, (for the N. Teft. printed in 1612 is printed in Rom. with the difcrepants only.) with letter caft from thefe matrices The Book of Common Prayer trans- lated into this Janguage, and Mr Richardj/on’s {ermons who was chaplain to The D. of Ormond then L. Lieut. were printed by EZnor Everingham at the Seven Stars in Ave-Mary-lane. the punches and matrices have
ever
1695.
34 OF ENGLISH POUN DERS,
ever fince continued in England. the Iri/h themfelves have no letter of this face, but are fupplied with it by us from Eng. though it has been faid, but falfely, that the Univ. of Louvain have lately procured a fount to be cut for the ufe of the Jri/h Seminary there.
And now we have done with the North, though we forget not the elegant edit. of Bede publifhed at Camobr. by Dr Smith, a Borealian, and near relation of Dr Smith, late Provoft of The Queen’s in Oxf. nor our late honoured friends The Rev. Mr Wife and The Rev. Mr Lye, the Second Funius, whofe pofthumous work would have carried another form and borne another title had not death anticipated the deftination.
About the time of Mr Funius’s gift to the Univ. the excellent Bp Fe//, moft ftrenuous in the caufe of learning, had regulated and advanced the learned prefs in the manner which had been intended by archb. Laud, and which would by him have been effected had not the iniquity of thofe anarchical and villainous times prevented. ---he gave tothe Univ.a noblecollec- tion of letter, confifting (befides the common founts Rom.and Ital. ) of Hebr.Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic ( Perfic, Turkifo and Malayan bought of Dr Hyde) Armenian, Coptic, “Ethiopic, Greek, Runic, Saxon, Englhfb, and Sclavonian: Mufic, Aftronomical and Mathematical figns and marks, flowers, €Sc. together with the punches and matrices from which they were caft, and all other utenfils and apparatus neceflary for a printing-houfe belonging to the Univerfity. the Sc/avonian (firft cut by Vofkens ) is the Cyrillian or antient church-character of the Ruffians, of which the Univ. purchafed a better cut letter in the y. 1695. as for the modern charac- ter of the Ruffans, which too has now put on the Rom. and Jta/. faces, there is not any of it as yet in Eng- land. 2
Specimens of the letter given by Bi/h. Fell, and an account of the foundery were feveral times printed
between
AND FOUNDERIES. 3;
between the years 1695 and 1715. we have four; the laft of which was publifhed in or after the y. 1706. at which time the number of boxes was 3 b> coeeate upwards of 6000 matrices.
The Coptic ufed in the edit. of the NV. Te/. publifhed in 1716. and the neater Copsic in the foundery of Mr Caflon, and the Armenian cut by Mr Ca/lon for the two Mr Whiftons have been already mentioned.
The Evtrufcan therefore, fuccefsfully purfued by The Rev. Mr Swinton of Oxf. the firft. of the Engl.
1706.
1716.
learned who have applied their ftudies to that antient _
language, muft clofe our account of the learned types. they were cut by the late Mr Ca/flon in the Vice- chancellorfhip of Dr Holmes for the ufe of that very learned linguift Mr Swinton. and pleafing would it be to us, though we fear the wifh is vain, to view the next emotions of grief or joy conceived in Phanician, Palmyrene, or Samnian brought forth by /ead and regu- lus and not by copper.
So ends our account of languages which are real. to it we fubjoin the bare mention of fome which are fictitious; the Utopian of Sir Thomas More, the Formofan of Pfalmanaazaar, the univerfal character of Mr Cave Beck, the univerfal character of Geo. Dal- _ garno, and (perhaps) the Philo/ophical of Bith. Wilkins. the matrices for the Real Charaéer of the latter are in our foundery, and were part of Mr Moxon’s, and were cut by him. Bp Wilkins’s is a peculiar character devifed by himfelf: Mr Beck’s and Dalgarno’s not. the three laft mentioned we have ventured to call lan- guages becaufe they have been fo called before us: but Dalgarno more properly names his performance Ars Signorum : the attempt of them all is to reprefent not words but things, to reunite that which God hath divided, to take away the confufion intended as a foil to the ambition of man, and—to build anew The Tower of Babel,
We
1733-
36 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS, We mutt add fomething of a fufile fo far extrinfi-
cal as that it is not confined to any particular face or language, but is ufed indifcriminately with them all; yet is it not an appurtenance indifpenfibly neceflary to a fount. we mean the Flowered letters and the Metal flowers, of which laft our foundery abounds with a great variety.
Thefe fucceeded the vignertes and imagery of the z//u- _ miners, whofe bufinefs funk into difufe foon after the introduction of printing, and the art itfelf into total oblivion, till Mr Wanley in the courfe of his fearches for the Catal. brorum vett. Septentrional. lighted upon a little treatife written in the y. 1525 to fhew the practice: a fecret which he kept to himfelf, and by the help of it refrefhed the injured or decayed illumi- nations in the library of the Earl of Oxford. we con- ceal the name of the author and the repofitory of the book, becaufe we would not willingly be anticipated in our defign of printing the tract. the mf. was tran- fcribed by Mi/s El/fob in 1710. and a copy of her tran- {cript is in our poffeffion, copied by Mr Geo. Ballard a Mantua-maker of Campden in Glouc. a perfon ftudious in Eng/. antiquities, laborious in his purfuits,a Saxoni/2, and after quitting the external ornaments of the fex, a contemplator of their internal qualifications; a demi of Magd. coll. Oxon. and author of Memoirs of feveral ladies of Great Britain who have been celebrated for their writings or fkill in the learned languages arts and fciences. Oxon. 4to. 1752.
The Flowered Letters came in lieu of the initials of the antient mff. but not immediately after the inven- tion of printing. for in the firft printed books a blank was ufually left for the infertion of the initials by the pencil of the illuminator; a fmall letter, being placed in the center for his cue, becaufe his knowledge confifted chiefly in the formation of a great one. this was in the infancy of the art when printed books
were
AND FOUNDERIES. 37
were intended to pafs for mff. but the practice was continued after the art had been divulged, andafter the mf. character began to give way to the Rom. and even in books printed in the Rom. character where could be no poflibility of deception.
It fometimes happens that in antient copies the ini- tials are not inferted, but the blanks and cues remain as they came from the prefs. thefe are unfinifhed copies not having paffed the hands of the illuminer. fuch is a copy which we have of Piuy’s Nat. Hifi. printed at Venice in 1483 (a very rare book and never feen by the curious Mr Maiziaire) the firft inftance which occurs to our memory. but the matter needs no proof, being well known to all who are converfant in books.
That blanks therefore fhould be left in fuch books is not to be wondered at. but that blanks fhould be left in a book which was not intended to have been illu- minated is not fo eafily to be accounted for. yet fo it is in the aftronomical tables of /fonfus reduced to me- thodical order by Job. Lucilius Santritter of Heilbronand printed at Venice by Hamman in 1492. for Hamman or Hertzgog was well furnifh’d with initials and flowered letters in wood. he had half adozen fets at leaft of differ- ent forts and fizes,as appears by the book itfelf; and yet many blanks are left though he was able to have made them good. his ornaments are very well for the time, and the book is very well printed. but the art of wood- cutting was greatly improved within a few years after- wards, as may be feen from the cuts ufed in the Mz/fal. ad vf. Sarum printed in the Univ. of Parisin 1515. and the Hit. Var. of Fofippus ben-Gorion in Hebrao-German printed at Zurich in 1546, which are very neat. the firft edition of Santritter we have: the fecond we never faw.
This ed. of the “/phonfine tables, which were after- wards reprinted by Santriter himfelf in 1494 is not to be difmiffed without producing from an epiftle prefixed to it and written in anfwer to one from Aug. Moravus
of
38 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
of Olmutz exhorting Santr. to the publication of the firft ed.a fignal teftimony in favour of the Germans ; not mentioned by any one to our knowledge, and older than any which have been mentioned. at leaft it is co- eval with that of Tvizhemius who was then living, and has this preference to the teftim. of the abbat, that it was made public to all the world by the art which it celebrates at a time when the fact was recent,and when hundreds of witnefles were alive to confirm or to con- front it; whereas the abbat’s hift. was then a mf. in his own ftudy. and if a fact which has been fo ear- neftly contefted fince were not then notorious the Duich would not have tarried almoft a century-and-half for a funius to have controverted it.
Santritter then, after defending Regiomontanusagainft the carpings and {narlings of fome ignorant Zoli goes on in defence of his country, provoking as it were a rival to accept his challenge. our extract is at the bot- tom of the page™*.
Thefe flowered letters were heavy in their afpect, and cumberfome by their bulk and number; for they were generally formed toa very deep-line capital and of neceffity muft run through the alphabet. therefore
* Sed fortaffe non vnius hominis Germani odio flagrant : fed totius gentis. Faceffat nunc inuidia & rerum jufti extimatores fimus: fi vita diuinior theoreumatibus redditur : vel vno 4/Jerto Magno totus or- bis Germanis debet : vt imprefentiarum ceteros obmittam : tum phi- ficis tum diuinis & mathematicis difciplinis eruditifimos : quorum fi nomina & libros recenferem: me prius dies deficeret quam ad nouifiimum pervenirem. fi vero que ad quottidianum vfum necef- faria funt miris cogitatibus inuenta commendabiliorem quampiam gentem reddunt: nulla profecto gens hanc preftat. plurima namq3 & ad pacis commoda & ad ornamenta inuenit. quantum vero bombarde Germanorum inuentum in bellis valeant difjecte menium validifime moles inter cetera documento effe poflunt : vt mirificam illam impreffo- riam artem a noftratibus inuentam filentio tranfeam: qua doétorum monu- menta non folum ab interitu liberantur: verum etiam copiofiffime pofteris traduntur. res innumeras noftri homines inuenere alterius dictionis & temporis. quibus, &ec.
a /uc-
AND FOUNDERIES. 39
a /uccedaneum fingle and more neat expelled them: a bordure which encompaffes any capital of the fame body, and which for this extenfivenefs of application has been denominated a fac-totum.
The Meza/-flowers were the firft ornaments ufed in printed books to be fet at the head of the firft page and the tail of the laft page, as well as at the head and tail of any feparate part of the whole work. and they were fometimes ufed as an edging to the matter accord- ing to the tafte of the author or the printer. they were ufed but {paringly and with {mall variety, but in time they became more numerous, and were cut in feveral fhapes forms and devices, and continued in reputation till Cuzters in Wood fapplanted them. when Mr Moxon wrote they were accounted old-fafhioned. but the ufe of them was revived by the French and Germans and the variety of them confiderably encreafed by the Two Mr ‘Fames’s in England.
The flower-matrices in their foundery have been divided into o/d and new, which to be fure is a divi- fion, but fuch as conveys nothing or a falfe idea to the underftanding.
We are to obferve then that the latter, though moftly now in vogue, are mere figures of fancy, made up of circular oval and angular turns, contrived to look light airy and unmeaning, and to try the genius or pa- tience of a compofitor.
But the former expreffed fome meaning and were adapted to other purpofes then barely to drefs and decorate a page. they were formed from real objects natural_.and artificial, civil and military. as from weeds and flowers of the field and garden, leaves, branches, fruits, flower-bafkets, flower-pots, urns, croffes, ban- ners, launces, fwords, and tilting {pears, and other fim- ples culled from the fields of nature and of heraldry; yet germane to the fubject matter of the work.
They
40 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
They were frequently emblematical and monitory; as cherubs faces for the hymns of charity girls, hour- glaffes for lugubrious orators, and mort-heads for the parifh-clerks. they were fymbolical of nations; as the crown and rofe, the crown and lyz, the crown and harp;—of dignities and orders; as diadems, crowns, mitres and coronets; the red hat called at Camb. the Cardinal’s cap, where too the mitre is called the golden night-cap; the courtelafs; the arms of U//er, and the anchor of hope: the Scozch-thiftle and fprigs of rue; both /ub-fymbolical; the former rendered more fo by the cry de guerre “Noli me tangere;”’ —of ftates and conditions; as the myrtle, the weeping willow, and the bugle-horn. with many others which to enumerate would be tedious here.
Thus have we with fuch materials as memory has fupplied gone through the hiftory of printing types in Eng. from the introduction of the art to the prefent time. 1t remains that we ftep a little backwards, and mention what we know of thofe who formed them; the founders of the latter times: thofe namely who fince the maturity of typography have exercifed that branch of it folely, in our account of whom we truft that deficiencies will be overlooked with candor.
The firft whofe names we meet with particularly diftinguifhed as Founders, are
‘Fohn Gri/mand, Thomas Wright, Arthur Nicholas, and Alexander Fifield,
the Four Founders appointed by The Court of Star- chamber in 1637 to ferve the whole kingdom.
By thefe or fome of them we may fuppofe to have been cut the letter ufed in The Engi. Polyglott: but as we cannot affign to any of them their particular per-
formances
RSS notion
PAS BAR Ba} PS Re
ea ete
Y ~ rN ac SRO GAAND GALNOG a)
Dp SORE SRG ORF SRG Lip Pears fae Ws a pie << okey RIS 4) arene Te roe Be ah Bae yy FASE RS
HOS: YOVOOOOS
LocLochoclodfoRocifach>
SCORN rie PRD. ED fy DNS: Ree ne INS ee Bs SR NaN GS SN
SLE
FLOWERS.
ar ~! Poul © ‘ * e ) ae a7 be ‘ EEF. ‘ f” } | Bos P ¢ ; \ . aa ly . ‘ p ; ‘3 * - mae \ . y al ; “7 i 4 £7 us Diack tat chs fe ae . eh % all Wl RAK Math weg . r , ° 4 7 . yon * . tay ~ eo ; + 54 +}! ue "4 P = h» * , a % + ‘ andy oy +1 E Seed ts FoF tate Int rm at a o~ « 7 it « - y Lt i ‘ f Z q , , Ae : fs oat RPT. as ale ik Fe he et Ww ‘es ‘ P ? Ls ~ i’ rn a, 4 4. eee es ‘ 6 f¥ . be o'\4 Ae Lae oP x! tis ph 4E fie i = >. i On “rh ' ’ oz ; ‘ : A ‘ eS * * ; -* J « ; } mn re aS ie f “ a * or 7 ¢ q M pote : ” a , . 4 ey 4 : é ps 4 7 Z ax 12 y-ce es 4.% } b: , =f a
ee,
ize geen RBSes¢ - s . , ‘ me:
Ar * - ; ‘] ‘ > é wud
AND FOUNDERIES. 41
formances we fhall till we are better able to afcertain them call their labours by the name of The Polyglott Foundery, which, as nearly as that work and The Hepia- glott which accompanies it inftruct us, is defcribed at the bottom of the page*. but it is not to be doubted confidering the elegance and fimplicity of the affort- ment which we fee, that the foundery was as com- pletely furnifhed with that which we fee not,and which for that reafon we cannot mention.
The ingenious Mr fofeph Moxon is the next. he founded at Lond. from 1659 to 1683. his bufinefs was that of 4 Mathematical Infirument Maker. and in the year 1665 he was hydrographer to his Majefty K. Ch. II. and lived at the fign of Alas on Ludgate- hill near Fleet-Bridge. in 1668 he dwelt at the fign of Ailas in Warwick lane. the caufe of his removal un- doubtedly was the conflagration of 1666. but as War- wick-lane was deftroyed in that conflagration as well as Ludgate-hill we can only fuppofe that he dwelt in one of the temporary edifices there fet up till the prin- cipal ftreet could be rebuilt. after which Mr Moxon returned to the neighbourhood of his former habita- tion, and dwelt on the Weft fide of F/eet-ditch. he was
* The Polyglott Foundery. The ORIENTALS. pooeler HEBR. Two-/. Eng. double-pic. and Eng. 1 a
SAMAR. with the Evg/. face; Eng. SYRIAC, doub. pic. and gr. pr. ARAB. doub. pic. and gr. pr. MERIDIONAL. ATHIOPIC, Eng. or pic. OCCIDENTALS. GREEK, gr. pr. and fm. pic. rom. and 1TaL. Two-/. Eng. doub. pic. gr. pr. Eng. pica, long pr.
Reva 54 pic. 22. gr. pr. fmm. pic.
SEPTENTRIONAL. ENGLISH, pica.
elected
42 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
elected a Fellow of The R. Soc. 30 Nov. 1678. an admirable Mechanic he was and Handicraft, and having been many years converfant in thofe trades in which the chief knowledge of all handy-works lies, in the year 1677 began to communicate to the public in monthly publications the knowledge he had attained. thefe publications he entitles Mechan- ick-Exercifes, or the Doéirine of Handy-works; all new matter not collected or tranflated from any others. thefe exercifes he continued to publifh monthly till Oates’s plot obftructed by taking off the minds “of “his few cuftomers from buying them.” the firft vol. treating of the Smith's, ‘foiner’s, Carpenier’s and Turn- er’s trades were then finifhed. in 1686 the work was re- fumed, and the fecond vol. which treats of the art of typography in it’s whole extent was finifhed in 24 num- bers about the year 1686. beyond which trades Mr Moxon went not, being prevented by death or by want of encouragement, though his purpofe was to have gone through many more.
His foundery makes part of the foundery of Mr Robert Andrews: and though the name of the inge- nious artift has in this inftance been forgotten, there are many circumftances which evince the truth of our affirmation. fuch are a variety of fimilar types appearing in his Mechanick-Exerci/es, particularly the Can. Rom. which is now Mr Caffon’s, and came from Mr Andrews’s foundery: the Univ. Charaéer of Bp Wilkins: the fymbols of Mr Adams: and the char- acters ufed by Mr Moxon himfelf where in his exer- cifes he defcribes the office of a correéfor. but thefe laft have fince Mr YFames’s death for want of curi- ofity and knowledge, or of fomething elfe, in the perfon who firft attempted to digeft the foundery, been fhot to wafte and pye, and muft perifh with other things which from the fame want have fhared
the
AND FOUNDERIES. 43
the fame fate, unlefs they fhould be the lot of One of curlofity and patience fufficient to feparate and digeft the mafs.
Mr Moxon publifhed feveral Mathematical treatifes between the years 1658 and 1687. oneis called Compen- dium Euchdis Curiofi, tranflated by him out of Dutch into Engh/b and printed at London in 1677.which may give occafion to fuppofe that Mr M. refided long enough in Holland to acquire the language by practice; for there are reafons to think that he did not attain it by the rules of grammar.
Sorry we are that we can fay no more of this excel- lent artift. the death of our ingenious friend Mr Geo. Adams, who likewife was hydrographer to his Maj. and a fucceflor to Mr Moxon as well in fkilfulnefs and curiofity as in office, has deprived us of many anec- dotes which would have decorated this account. this however we may add, more immediately relating to us at prefent, that Mr Moxon by nice and accurate divifions adjufting the fize fituation and form of the feveral parts and members of /etter, and the propor- tion which every part bore to the whole; by the exact conftruction of his ftanding-gages, and gages for the counter-punches of angulars,a new thing to the let- ter-cutters of his time who worked by eye and hand only, and by repeated ftampings of the counter-punch in lead tried how it pleafed them, and never made two of the fame ftandard; by laying down for once the angles required for the flopes of the Jtalick, {culp- ing down the upper-fhouldering of the zu/ra-foot- line fwafhes which others only filed away as far as they could, leaving the reft, after the letter fhould be caft, to the kerning-knife; and in fhort by applying in every inftance geometry and mathematical and mechanical fkill to the art of letter-cutting, was the firft of Englifb letter-cutters who reduced to rule the art which before him had been practifed but by guefs,
and
Mr Moxon’s
Foundery, 1660.
Bp Fell’s Foundery, 1667.
44 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
and left to fucceeding artifts examples that they might follow his practice*.
Peter Walpergen at Oxford in 1683. of whom as we can fay nothing more than that he is fometimes called Walperger, and by his name feems to have been a for- eigner, and a tranfient through the means of Burgh- ers, we fhall here introduce the account of the ma- trices feverally given to the Univ. by Bf. Fel/and by Mr Funius, which according to thechronology of print- ing types in England fhould follow here**. this ac-
count
Mr Moxon’s Foundery.
It has been before obferved that Mr Moxon’s foundery makes part of Mr Robert Andrew’s foundery; we believe the moft confiderable part: but as they cannot without great trouble be feparated we are content that Mr Moxon’s fhall be included in Mr Andrews’s of which an account fhall be given in it’s proper place.
There was a ames Moxon who in the year 1677 lived “ near Char- ing-cro/s in the Strand, right againft King Harry the Eighth’s Head;” at whofe houfe Mr Moxon’s books were fold; and an F. Moxon, philo- mat. who in 1696 lived at the 4#/as in Warwick-Jane, and in that year publithed jointly with Ven. Mandey $¥lechanick-Powers: or the miftery of nature avd art unvailed. and an . Moxon who in 1701 publifhed a mathematical dictionary in 8vo. but whether thefe are one and the fame perfon, or whether and how related to Mr Fo/eph Moxon we cannot fay: but there feems to have been an intention of . grafting lucre upon Mr Moxon’s name, and a defire that the F fhould pafs for Fo/eph, as with the unwary it fometimes does.
ORIENTALS. HEBR. great and fmall, matr. 546. SAMAR. (Eug.) 30. SYRIAC, 121. ARAB. SYR. and HEBR. 238. ARMEN. 77.
MERIDIONALS. COPTIC 195; ETHIOPIC, 224. OCCIDENTALS: GREEK, parag. 445. gr. pr. 456. Augu/?.353. pic.513. ong-pr.354.
ROM.
Ie Bifhop Fei/’s Foundery.
AND FOUNDERIES. 45
count may contradict what we have faid before, that Mr Junius brought into Eng. letter only without punches or matrices. for the Runic, Sax. Sc. of the Dutch height fhould feem to be his.what the &c. comprehends we cannot pre- tend to fay; but the pica Engli/h with a pretty face men- tioned in p. 16. 1s (if we forget not) of the Dutch height; and Mr Funius’s defign did neceffarily require that the reft of his letter fhould be of the fame height. therefore to make amends for any injury which we may unwit- tingly have done to Mr ‘Funius, he fhall be the donor of a foundery to the Univ. and upon a prefumption that this is true his foundery fhall be confidered hereafter as making partof the Foundery of the Univ. of Oxjord. but if we arewrong we are not to be blamed: for the ma- terials from which this account of the Oxford Foundery is drawn are not foaccurate as might have been expected from an archetypographus and the curators of the She/- donian **, In excufe may be alledged that neither the
arche-
ROM. great brafs caps. 40. canon,204. doub. pic. 123. gr.pr.121. another by Nicols.... Augu/?. 142. pic.156. pica for Welch.... long-pr.155. brev.156. fin. pic. 142. nonp.134.
ITAL. doud. pic.87. gr.pr.85, another by Nicols.... Auguff.114. pic.130. long-pr.121. brev.134. fim. pic. 142. nonp.121.
SEPTENTRIONALS.
ANGLO-SAX,.
ENGLISH, Eng.73.
SCLAVONIAN, gr. pr. 110.
MATH. marks and fymbols, 72.
MUSIC, 284.
FLOWER matrices. ...
Long-pr. BRACES, 16.
PUNCHES. Samarit. 71. Syriac,58. Perf. Turc. and Mal.... Coptic, 33. Greek, 2 1. doub. pic.38. 21. Eng. 11. doudb. pic. 160. gr.pr.120. Rom. and Ital. 21. gr. pr.183. doubl. pic. and gr. pr. 325. Eng.174. Eng. 73. Sclavon.109. Math....Mufic, 180. Braces and long-pr. Rules, with fome hundreds more of all forts.
** Mr Funiuss Foundery. |
SEPTENTRIONALS. RUNIC, GOTHIC, ANGLO-SAX. ENGL. ISLANDIC, DAN- ISH, pic. SWEDISH, Eng. OCCL
Mr Funius’s Foundery, 1677.
46 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
archetypographus nor the curators are Letter-foun- ders; certainly that the matter has not been treated with that precifion which in fo learned a body fhould feem to be requifite.—for one inftance among oth- ers which might be produced, take the Doudle-pica, brevier and nonpareil Hebrew, the only Hebrew types the Univ. then had. they are Two-dne Eng. Eng. and Long Primer. and this miftake has run through all the editions of the Oxford {fpecimen; and in the laft of 1770, the leaneft and the worft of all, appears moft glaringly: for this drevier is placed immediately un- der Ca/lon’s long-pr. a diverfity fufficient one would think to fhew the blunder without the aid of a mag- nifier. the zonp. as it 1s called is omitted in this laft fp. and fo are many other fets of matrices which have been given to the Univ. touching which enquiry fhould be made out of refpect (at leaft) to the memory of the donors.
—— Nicols, in 1690.
(fohn) Grover.
Thomas Grover, his fon; both whom 4mes who is ex- ceedingly incorrect throughout his work calls Glover. their founding-houfe was in /4ngel-alley in Alder/vate- frreet and their foundery is particularized below *.
M: OCCIDENTALS. if
GREEK, ROM. ITAL, pica. and this is the beft account we can give of it who are not upon the {pot. Mr Grover’s) * "The Foundery of the two Mr Grovers. Kounders (ORIENT ALS . 1700, ; , , hs HEBR. Bibl. gr. pr. 30. pic. 80. long-pr.60. brev.130. SAMAR. with the Eng. face, Eng. 32. SYRIAC, doub. pic. 60. pic. 80. ARAB. doub. pic. 30.
MERIDIONAL. copric (the new hand) 81. gz.— this feems to be a miftake of the cataloguers who had fallen upon fomething which they did not underftand; we fuppofe the 4/exandrian fount, which from the femblance
AND FOUNDERIES. 47
Mr Thomas Grover had feveral daughters, one of whom, Caffandra, was the wife of Mr = Meres, and
femblance they took to be Coptic. the numb. 81 was made up with fomething elfe which they were ftrangers to; and fo are we. but whatever it was (if it is in the foundery) it is now in its proper place.
OCCIDENTALS.
GREEK, doud. pic. large-f.183.{m.-f.... gr.pr.144. Eng.350. pic. 380. another 120. /ong-pr.120. dbrev. very fine 426. another imperf. 2 /.full-f. capitals 23.
ROM. andITAaL.(regulars) 2 /. Eng. full-f.cap.31. 2/ Eng. r.100. 17. 77. doub. pic.R. large-f.120. 17. 98. {m.-f.R.126. 17.98. gr.pr.R. large-f.102. 17.105. {m.-f.R.153. 17.105. {m.caps.27. Eng.r. 159.1T.114. twoother Eng.r.and1T- founts (one called the old Eng.) Eng.{m.cap.27. pic.r.broad-f.85. pic.r.called King’s hou/e 146. pic.r.andiT.292. pic.1T.42.{m.cap.27. /ong-pr.R.and 17.177. another called King’s-/ou/ez26. another fount 219. two others. fm. cap. 27. drev. large-f.r. 96. R. andir. 241. R. and iT. {m.-f....17.... (title letters and irregulars) 5 / pic. full-f. cap. 31. caz.R.87.1T. 70. can.lean-f.R.cap.57. 2/.doub. pic. full-f.cap.26. 2/4. gr. pr. full-f. cap. 31. 2/ gr. pr.r. 86. 17.68. 2/. pic.full-f.cap.31. 2/ pic.r.83.117.77. 24. fm. pic. full-ficap. 27. 2/. long-pr. full-f.cap. 31. 2/.brev.full-f. cap. 21. paragon r. 106. 17.38. /m. pic.R.andiT.175. another 233. fm. cap. 27. minionR. and 17.175. nonp.R.anditT. 174. another 175. pearl rR. andi. 167. diamondr. and it. 94.
SEPTENTRIONALS.
ANGLO-SAXON, £7. ff. 2.0 pic. 30.
ENGLISH, doud. pic.69. gr.pr.66. another with Jaw, 73. Eng.82. another with /42w128. /ong-pr.numb.I.74. numb. II. 89. numb.
> ll. 74. brev.73.—— 22. gr.pr.69. fin. pic. 70. nonp.88.
SCRIPTORIAL, dowd. pic.Court 80. Eng. Court 100. gr. pr. Secre- tar.105. doub. pic.-Union-pearl 61.
CURSIVE, doub.pic.... gr.pr.6g. Eng. numb. I. 68. numb. II. 57. pic.... long-pr. 68.
GEOMETRICAL and ALGEBRAICAL fymbols, asTRONOMICAL, ASTROLOGICAL, and PHARMACEUTICAL charaéters, Eng. 55. Figures ftruck in circles and {quares Eng. 22. pic. Aftro- nomical characters bel. to pica King’s houfe 22. pica Algebraical and Pharmaceutical marks, and cancelled figures 3 fets. /oug-pr. dominical letters, Aftronom. Aftrolog. and Pharmaceut. marks and characters. . . . /ong-pr. Fractions 20.
MUSIC, gr. pr. 176.
FLOWERS 200.
space-rules, METAL-rules, and BRACES ISO.
Some PUNCHEs for pic. Jong-pr. and nonp. Greek, and fome /ong- pr. and other punches. No
Mr Robert
Andrews’s
Foundery, 1706.
48 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
Mr Meres’s daughter E/iz. was the wife of Mr Rich. Nutt.
Mr Grover’s foundery was the joint property of all his daughters, and was appraifed and valued 14 O%. 1728 by Mr Thomas Fames and the late Mr Ca/fon, and Mr Ca/flon contracted for the purchafe of it; but the daughters of Mr Grover thinking the foundery undervalued refufed to join in the fale of it to Mr Caflon: fo the foundery remained locked up at Mr Nut’s houfe thirty years, Mr Nuit in the mean time cafting from the matrices for the ufe of his own print- ing-houfe. at length all the daughters of Mr Grover being dead the whole property centered in Mr Nui, of whom it was purchafed by Mr ‘ohn Fames 14 Sept. 1768.
Part of this foundery of Mr Grover’s is faid to have belonged to the foundery of Winkyn de Worde, in particular the Two-/. gr. pr. Eng. which lies in Byddel 7. and the gr. pr. Eng. which lies in Byddel 8. and from thefe founts were taken the two {fpeci- mens given by Mr Palmer in his Gen. Hift. of Printing,
P+ 343:
Mr Goring. |
Mr Robert Andrews. his founding-houfe was in Charter-hou/e-fireet, and he was living in the y. 1724. his foundery, including that of Mr Moxon which con- ftitutes the greateft part of it, is enumerated at the
bottom of the page*. Mr
| The Foundery of Mr Robert Andrews.
ORIENTALS.
HEBR. Bibl. Two-l. Eng.32. doub. pic. 68. gr.pr.35. Eng. (the common Germ. face) 47. another. Eug.73. pica65. long-pr.35. brev. 35. fm. pic. (old) 42. another 77. another 73. monp. 35. Rabb. Hebrao-Germ. Eng. 30. Rafhi, pic.29. long-pr.30. brev. 29. nonp.2g. large-f. points 42. accents 27. {m.-faced points 28.
SAMAR. (Leu/denian) 21.
SYR.
AND FOUNDERIES. 49
Mr Silvefter Andrews, his fon. he founded at Oxford. Mr Thomas Fames purchafed both their founderies in 1733. but the Canon Rom. and Ital. are in Mr Ca/- Jon’s foundery. Mr Silv. Andrews’s foundery was no- thing compared with that of his father. in truth it was part of his father’s, and ought to be confidered as part of that catalogue; but confidered as the foun-
SYR. gr.pr.47. points 13.
ARAB. gr.pr.104. Eng. 62. MERIDIONAL.
ETHIOP. gr.pr. 212.
OCCIDENTALS.
GREEK, Eng..... long-pr..... DIEU. Secs (thefe three were pur- chafed by Mr Tho. Fames 20 Apr. 1724. ten years before the fale of the foundery) /onmg-pr.457. brev. 331. nonp. 329.
ROM. and ITAL. (regulars) 2 / Eng. full-f.cap. 31. 2/. Hug.r.147. 17.108. doud. pic. large-f.r.122. fmall-f.115.17.107. doubd. pic. r. numb. II. 118. 17.66. another126. gr.pr.r.numb.I. 114. rr.102.numb.J].rx.t10.17.66. Exg.r.andir..... Eng.r. numb.II.g2. numb.III.96. Eng.r.lower-c. 32. pic.R.117. pic. Rr. lower-c.27. pic. R.andit.long-f.... /ong-pr.r.84. 17.80. long-pr.R.lower-c. 42. another38. /ong-pr.17. cap. and doub. 45. brev.R.lower-c. 57. another 57. drev.1T. ... (title letters and irregulars) 4/. pic. full-f.cap. 30. canonR.accents27. cam.1T.74. 21. doub. pic.R.127. 2/.gr.pr.full-f.cap.31. 24 pic. full-f. cap. 31. 2/ pic.r.lean-f.58. parag.R.122.11T. 100. fm. pic. Rr. 76. 1T. 82. another 17T. 98. another 80. R. andit.... Bourgeoi/e IT.72. nonp.R. 80. pear/R. 2 fets.
SEPTENTRIONALS.
ANGLO-SAXON, pic. 16. another 21.
ANGLO-NORM. Qf. pr. Cap. 24.
ENGLISH, gr. pr. with Jaw 116. Eng. with aw 106. pic. with daw 125. pic.{m.-f.71. dong-pr.78. brev.with daw 118. fm. pic. with Jawi20. another fim. pic. 58. nonp. 43.
SECRETAR. g7.pr. cap. 15.
HIBERN. pic. 60.
B. WILKINS’S Real character, Eng. 160.
MR ADAMS’s fymbols 20.
MR MOxoNn’s Correéting marks, Eng. 16.
MATHEMATICAL characters, Eng. and /m. pic. 42.
ASTRONOM. and ASTROLOG. 31.
MusIC, 2/. gr. pr. 54. paragon {quare headed 44. large old fq. headed 61. fundry bodies of old {quare headed 155.
dery
so OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
dery of the fon purchafed by Mr Fames the account of it is this*.
Mr Skinner.
Mr Heaa’s founding-houfe was in St. Bartholo- mew’s clofe. whofe the foundery was originally we know not; but
Mr Robert Mitchell who had been fervant to Mr Grover fucceeded to it. he removed afterwards into Fewyn-ftreet, and afterwards lived over Cripple-gate, and afterwards in Paul's Alley between Alder/eate—fireet and Red-crofs-fireet. his foundery containing nothing very curious unlefs it were the Eng. was 26 ‘Ful. 1739 pur- chafed by the late Mr Caflon and Mr ‘fohn ‘James, and was divided between them in the manner mentioned below **.
Mr Thomas ‘fames, fon of The Rev. Fohn Fames, vi- car of Ba/fing fioke, ferved his apprenticefhip with Mr Robert Andrews. he entered into bufinefs for himfelfin
Sagas ) * Mr Silvefier Andrews’s Foundery. Poms. { HEBR. dev. 30 (at firft 33).
furtiv. ROM. andiT. 2/ Eng.cap..... gr. pr.R. large-f.125.17.82. Eng. R. 148. 17.98. pic. R. large-f.153. {m.-f.148.1T. 110. pic. R. lower-c. 27. Jong-pr.R. 119. 17.102. drev.R. large-f. 130. {m.f.135.1T. 105. two fets of caps. 24. PUA Deas Jim. pic. R. 146. 17.28. minion R. andit..... nonp. R. large-f. 140. 1T. 105. nonp.R.{m.-f. 94. pearlr.g8. 17. 38.
Mr Robert \** MrC aflon’s choice. Mitchell’s : eens GREEK, pica.
ROM. and ita. Four-/. pica, 2-l. gr. pr. 21. Eng. and 2/. pic. full-f. caps. gr. pr. Eng. long-pr. brev. and nonp. ENG. gr. pr. Eng. pic. long-pr. brev. fm. pic.
The music matrices, and the FLOWER matrices.
** Mr Fames’s fhare.
ROM. and 1TaAL. can. 2/1. gr.pr. 21 Eng. doub. pic. ({m.-faced) gr. pr. (3 founts) Eng. large-f. pica, brevier (3 founts) /m. pic. minion, pearl (2 founts) with the Eug. ALGEBRA, Pic.-CAN- CELLED-FIGURES, and /ng-pr.-ALMANAC-matrices.
the
AND FOUNDERIES. st
the y. 1710. and his foundery was begun with a fet of matrices which he purchafed that year in Holland, to which country he went for that purpofe. the account of his expedition is entertaining; therefore let him {peak for himfelf. and thus he {peaks in letters to his brother.
Rotterdam, 22 “fun. 1710. ‘“<T have been with all the Letter-founders in 4m- fterdam, and if I would have given *** for matrices could not perfuade any of ’em but the laft I went to, to part with any. fo far from it that it was with much ado I could get them to let me fee their bufinefs. the Dutch Letter-founders are the moft fly and jealous people that ever I faw in my life. however this laft man (being as I perceived by the ftrong perfume of Geneva waters a moft profound fot) offers to fell meall his houfe for about ***** I mean the matrices: for the punchions withthem he will not fell for any money. but there being about as much as he would have *** for, Hebr. and other Oriental languages, fuch as Syrian Samaritan and Ruffian characters, | would not confent to buy ’em. but the reft confifting of about 17 fets of Rom. and Jta/. capitals and {mall letters, and about 5 fets of capital letters only, and 3 fets of Greek, be- fides a fet or two of Black with other appurtenances, thefe I defign to buy. he is not very fond of felling them becaufe it will be a great while before he can furnifh himfelf again. however I believe I fhall have "em for lefs than **** a matrice, which as he fays is cheaper than ever they were his; but having moft of the punches he can fink ’em again and fo fet himfelf to rights with little trouble and lefs charge.”
Rotterdam, 14 Ful. 1710.
“JT took a place in the waggon for Tergoes, and from thence in a fcayte for 4m/terdam, where I arrived
go OF ENGLISH POUND KS,
arrived at 5 o’clock on Monday-morning 10 Ful. as foon as I thoughtthe perfon I have dealt with was ftir- ring I went to confer with him farther about his ma- trices: but inftead of finding all things fet in order for fale I found him lefs provided than when I was with him before; for indeed he had lent about eight fets of matrices to another Letter-founder. I let him know my mind by an interpreter. he told me what a dif- pofition his things were in, and faid he had rather part with fome particular fets than with all. in fhort I found he had not a mind to part with.any but thofe which he efteemed leaft, and thofe of which he had the puncheons by him to fink again when he pleafed. I told him that I came expecting to make an end of the bargain, if he would part with all the fets I had feen in his proof for the price I had offered. the man hefitated a good while and at laft told me he would advife about it. I told him I’d have him refolve pre- fently, and fhewed him the bill ****** the fight of the bill made the man begin to be a little more ferious than before; fo after a few more words he told me he would fend for his other fets in the afternoon. I told him shat he might do, but in the mean time I would furvey thofe he had by him; fo he hada table fet, and he fetched his matrices to me. The reafon why I would not ftir out of his houfe till I had taken a furvey of his matrices was, becaufe I was fearful that he might pick and cull (as we call it) a great many things which are ufeful in printing befides juft the alphabets; and indeed leaft he might change fome whole fets: though indeed the man declares he would .not do a thing fo ill for his life. however I having all the matrices brought into one room locked ’em up, and took the key away with me, and went to dinner. in the afternoon I went again with my interpreter (being an Exchange-Broker) where we fat all the afternoon viewing the matrices. at night I locked "em
AND FOUNDERIES. he
"em up again and took the key with me, and on Tue/- day-morning prefented my bill, which was accepted and paid immediately. but I fhould have told you that the afternoon before he fent his wife to fpeak to the people to fend home the other fets; but fhe brought a note from the houfe and faid the mafter who had the key and keeping of ’em was gone a great way out of town to the burial of his mother, and they did not expect him back till Wedne/day. this news was very difagreeable to me: but not knowing how to help my- felf, on Tue/day, after having viewed all day thofe he had, I paid him ***** and took ’em all along with me to my lodging when it was too late to fend to you by the poft from Am/flerdam. on Wedne/day | went again but could not find the man at home. he was gone for the other {fets. fo I tarried till yefterday and went again and received three of the eight fets. the reft are not to be had yet, the man being not returned, only his wife who gave him thofe three fets. fo there are want- ing but five fets more which are all Greeks but one. I took ’em molds and all, and packed them up in a box and fent em by an 4m/lerdam {cayte appointed to carry goods for Rotterdam. this I did fearing the Catherine- yacht might fail if I tarried for the reft. at 8 o’clock laft night I took fcayte for Tergoes, and arrived there this morning. from thence I came hither by waggon and arrived here before 9.”
Rotterdam, 27 “Ful. 1710.
“You are defirous to know whether the matrices I have bought excel thofe which are in the hands of the Letter-founders in England. the beauty of letters like that of faces is as people opine: but notwithftanding I had no choice, all the Romans excel what we have in Englandin my opinion,and I hope being well wrought, I mean caft, will gain the approbation of very hand- fome letters. the /a/. I do not look upon to be unhand-
fome,
54 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
fome, though the Dusch are never very extraordinary in thofe. an account of the names that I think I fhall give the fets I have bought is as follows; The largeft fize I fhall diftinguifh by the name of Four-line-pica, the next by that of French Canon, the next by that of Two-line-pica: thefe three confit of Capitals only. the fourth fize is a fmall Canon Ital. the fifth a Two- line-Eng. Rom. and Ital. the fixth Great-primer Rom. of which I have two fets, a great face and a {mall one, with one Jia/. to them both. the feventh fize is an Eng. Rom. and Ital. the eighth a pica of which I have three fets Rom. and one Jia/. the ninth a /mall pica Rom. and Ital. the tenth Long-primer, three fets Rom. and one Jtal. the eleventh Brevier Rom. and Ital. befides thefe I have one fet of Great primer Greek, one of Eng. Greek, one of Pica Greek, one of Brevier Greek, as alfo one fet of Pica Black,and one of Brevier Black, together with matrices of divers forts of flowers ufed as orna- ments in printing; to which I have fifteen molds. all the fizes except the three firft have capitals, {mall- letters, double-letters, figures, and points, as alfo all the accents, amounting in the whole to the number of about 3500 matrices*. as for fets of Nonpareil and Mr Fames's\* Mr Fames’s original foundery is exactly enough defcribed in this Foundery. {letter to his brother for the purpofe by him intended: but in con- formity to that which we have done before we thus defcribe it more particularly. Matrices purchafed of Ro/iy.
OCCIDENTALS.
GREEK, gr. pr.1gl. pic. 161. brev. 141. f/m. pic. 130.
ROM. andiraL. 2/4, Eng.R.148.1T.90. gr. pr.R. 111. another IOI. 17.123. Eng.r.86. 17.78. pic.R. 109. another 80. an- other 82.17.95. dong pr.R. 140. another 1§5. another 141. 17. g4. brev.R.112.17.97. title-letters and irreg. 4 /. pic. R. 35. can. R. (22. gr. pr. it 1s) 33. fm. can.1T. rectius 2 7, Eng. mifling. 2b PER 212 Mn. Pie. R ABOse TT.
SEP. ENJTREONALS. ENGL. pic. 60. brev. 65. MAT H, WiatkSec cre aes FLOWERS, 0. a. os
Pearl
AND FOUNDERIES. S5
Pearl 1 am informed nobody in this country has any but the Jew whofe name is “4ias. him I was with firft of all, who affured me he would part with none of any fize whatever; as did likewife another man whofe name is Fo/kins. the next I went to was Cupi by name. he faid he muft confult a friend of his be- fore he could give me any an{wer, which friend being gone out of town it would be two or three days be- fore he could certify me. the next and laft I went to the fame day: his name was Ro/ij, a German by Birth. him I foon perceived I fhould agree with, as afterwards I did. but before I went to him I called upon Cupi. he told me he would fell no matrices, but he would caft me as much letter as I would have as cheap as any body. I went to him before I agreed with Ro/i/, becaufe I would fee which would fell cheapeft. but finding them all fo inflexible I was obliged to agree with Roi upon his own terms, who however did not know but I had come to him firft, fince himfelf and Cupi are the only Letter-cutters in this country,and he did not ima- gine but thatif he would not have fold me matrices Cupi would, as I found by him afterwards. when Cupi per- ceived that Ro/j would fell me fome matrices(as indeed then Rofjand I had agreedand hereceived 1700 gilders in part) he comes to the Exchange-Broker and told him he would fink his puncheons again and in half a years time deliver me all the matrices he has, perfect, after the rate of **** p matrice, but that except I would take all one with another he would fell none at all.
His Rom. letters are very handfomeand his Jta/ic’s ugly, but all printed upona proof of the beft paper; with all the care taken in compofing and printing ima- ginable, which adds much to the luftre of his letter. ina book it is quite another thing; not fo handfome as Ro/ij’s whofe letter in the proofs I could feein matter looks much better than it does in his printed Specimen,
which
56 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
which is done with all difadvantage, being wretchedly compofed and worfe printed off, upon very forry paper. however I can fee when letters are well proportioned. I have two Specimens of his letter in matter which look very beautiful. Ro/7 fays whatever matrices I fhall want whether great or {mall he’ll cut ’em for me as foon as I give him orders, provided it happens be- fore a peace. he told me likewife he would fee if he could procure any Nonpareil and Pearl of the Jew, I allowing him a reafonable profit for his pains. Ro/ fays he was the man who made Fo/kins’s father by the letter he cut for him. Fo/kins is a man of great bufi- nefs having five or fix men conftantly at the furnace, befides boys to rub, and himfelf and a brother to do the other work. how many men the Jew keeps at work I do not know, for he would not permit me to go up into his work-houfe. Fo/kins thought I wanted letter to be caft, but when he knew that I was a Letter- founder he looked very fly, and watched me as if I had been a thief, being I fuppofe very fearful that I fhould fteal fome of their art from them. Cupz was not very forward to let me fee his work-houfe, and the firft time avoided it by faying he could not ftay for he juft was going out, but the fecond time I did fee it tho’ he was as loath then as before, faying he believed there was nobody at work; but I told him the perfon who was with me wanted to fee the trade and he would oblige me by fhewing it. he had places for fourto work although there was but one cafting. I did not afk Rolj to fhew me his work-houfe the firft time I went to him, but the fecond time I went up and faw places for four men and nobody at work. I afked him where his men were: he told me they were gone to a fair at Harlem, but I believe he had lent them out as well as his matrices to fome other Letter-founder. as I was going along the ftreet with him he told me there was an Engli/b gentleman that had lodged at fuch
a houfe
AND FOUNDERIES. aa a houfe (pointing to it) for whom he had caft 300 £.
worth of work not long ago, which if true muft have been for Tonjfon.
I have bought of Ro/j in all thirty fets of matrices befides the box of flowers, and 15 molds made of brafs as almoft all the Dusch molds I faw were. Mr Cupi has in all but eighteen fets of matrices, but is continually as I hear cutting more, defigning in time to fet up printing and book-felling too. he is a very clofe and very civil fellow. I do not know but one time or other I may take another trip into this country for matrices, for there’s no trufting to any body here to manage bufinefs for one: there’s hardly fuch a thing as an honeft man to be found. they all live by buying and felling, and whatever they can bite any one of they count it fairly got in the way of trade. I hear but a very indifferent character of the young man the broker who interprets for me. he is very expert indeed at that, and I do not know what I fhould have done without him: but I am informed that if it lay in his power to come at any of my money, he would con- trive fome way or other to cozen me of it, or part of it at leaft; for which reafon I took particular care. he ftood very hard with me for a gilder p cent. for every hundred I laid out.‘the molds and matrices together ftand me in ***** T have inquired very diligently of abundance of Printers, Bookfellers, and of Mr Rolij, whether there are any Letter-founders at Har- lem, Leyden, The Hague, Delft, or Utrecht. 1 was told by fome they knew of none; and by others that there were none; and Ro/j affured me there were none at any of thofe places; and I myfelf faw at Fo/kins’s a box with letter in it directed for Utrecht. and it feems very probable there may be none at any of thefe places becaufe letter may be fent from m/fferdam to any of thefe places as cheap by water as a porter in London will carry a burthen half a mile. the box of molds
and
58 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
and matrices which I bought was brought hither from Amfterdam for 12 ftivers into the houfe. the diftance about 40 Englifh miles. I am told there is one Let- ter-founder at Tergoes but I can’t hear of one Engli/h- man, or Engli/b-houfe in the whole town. however I'll endeavour to find the Founder before I leave the country. I have been through Tergoes three times, and as often through Harlem, Leyden, and Delft, but never made any ftay in any one of them. I have been twice to the Hague, but at fuch times that I could not fee the ftates-houfe. the town 1s very fine. one’s charges thither and back again are not above a gilder. ’tis very eafy, and travelling would be very pleafant if one were not deftitute of company.”
Mr Fames after his return from Ho//and had his firft founding-houfe in A/dermanbury: from thence he removed to Yown-ditch: in both which places his bufi- nefs was carried on upon upper-floors, which being infufficient in ftrength for the weight of his operations he at length removed to the foundery in St Barth. where he continued till the time of his death, which happen’d in the y. 1738. accelerated by an unlucky attachment to a method of printing long fince re- jected, and at variance with the improvements of latter times *. }
This
* This was the method of Bluck-printing, firft pra€tifed by the CAi- nefe and Faponefe and purfued in the firft eflays of Fau/?, the Euro- pean inventor of the prefent art, before the more excellent method of printing by feparate types had been devifed by him and Schoeffer. it was performed by engraving the matter upon blocks of wood, every block containing a page of the work which was to be printed. and in this manner was printed the Spec. Morientium, and other macu- latures of the art.
About the y. 1730 one Fenner took it into his head to revive this antient method, but with improvement. inftead of planks and engraving he ufed cafting and plates of metal, thus; the matter
was
AND FOUNDERIES. 59
This founding-houfe is an edifice disjoined from the dwelling-houfe, and feems to have been built for Mr
was firft compofed in the ufual way: then the form was affufed with fome fort of Gyp/um which after it was indurated became a complication of matrices for cafting the whole page in a fingle piece.
The project required money which Feuer wanted: fo Mr Fob. Fames (the brother of Mr Tho. Fames) then an architect at Green- wich was taken into the {cheme, and afterwards Mr Tho. Fames him- {elf ; and the partnerfhip at length confifted of
Mr Fob. Fames, t Mr Tho. Fames,
The faid Fenner, and
Fames Gadd,
the laft of whom was in the rebellion of 1745, a captain in Perth’s regiment, was arraigned of high treafon, pleaded guilty, and begged to be recommended to mercy: and his life was {pared on account of his knowledge in this method of printing which was thought to be ufeful.
In the purfuit Mr Tho. fames expended a confiderable part of his fortune and fuffered in his proper bufinefs: for the printers would not employ him becaufe the d/ck-printing had it fucceeded would have been prejudicial to theirs.
But the hiftory of their progrefs is briefly comprehended in two letters which are owing to this publication;
“Rey. Sir,
““T am adding One to the number of typographical hiftorians: but my fubjeét is a branch only of that hift. which has not been treated on profeffedly before.
“In the profecution of it I have occafion to fpeak of the method of d/ck-printing : or that of printing by caft plates inftead of fingle types, a method which received greater encouragement at Camodr. than it hath been honoured with in any other place.
“‘T have now before me a printed addrefs to The Univ. figned Fohn Fames and Comp. humbly fuing for the privilege of printing Bibles and Common Pr. books by this method. the addrefs has no other date than this chronological circumftance to afcertain it’s time, that it was made about three years after The Univ. had granted their (then) laft leafe to The Comp. of Stationers, which I con-
jecture
60 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
Mr Fames’s own purpofe, the dwelling-houfe is an ir- regular rambling place formerly in the occupation of Mr
jecture was about the y. 1736. and I apprehend that The Univ. condefcended to their requeft: for I remember to have been told fome years ago by a ftraggling workman who had wrought there, that both bibles and comm.-pr. books had been printed, but that the com- pofitors when they corrected one fault (which was only to be done by perforation) made purpofely half a-dozen more, and the prefs-men when the mafters where abfent battered the letter in aid of the com- pofitors: in confequence of which bafe proceedings the books were fupprefied by authority and condemned to ef piper &F quicquid, ©Sc. and that all the chandleries in Camér. were full of Fames’s bibles, and that the plates were fent tothe King’s printing-h. and from thence to Mr Caflon’s founding-h. to be melted; an infpector ftanding at the | furnace to fee the order fully executed.”
“This, Sir, is all that I have heard ofthe matter, and if any thing is untrue or defe¢tive be fo kind as to correct or add.”
“What I particularly defire to know is,
1. Whether Mr Fos. Fames was the firft who engaged in this at- tempt; or whether ***** [zhis query was founded on a miftake: a fuppo- fition that Mr Joh. James ere mentioned was Mr Joh. James the Let- ter-Founder. 4e was not. he was the Uncle of our Founder. |
2. Who was the inventor: for the invention (if a revival may be called an invention) was not their own.
3. The method by which they caft fuch large plates and fmall letter fo truly, if the fame be not yet a fecret.
4. The dates neceflary to render the foregoing account more com- plete.
5. Whether they printed any thing befides bibles and comm.-pr. books. for I have the plate from which the enclofed p. of Sad/uj? was printed. it was given me by a gent. of Cambr. who cannot recol- lect how he came by it. it feems to have received a ftroke from the
wrong end of the baill-ftocks and to confirm the teftimony of the ftrageler.”’ HK KKK
In anfwer to which thus writes T4e Rev. Dr Richardson, Mafter of Eman. and with a precifion which we have not met with before. for the {cience of typography although formerly exercifed by fchol- ars, and now certainly is an appendage of a {cholar, is but little under- ftood by thofe who ufe it.
“The
AND FOUNDERIES. 61
Mr Roycroft, afterwards in that of Mr Howndeflow, afterwards in that of Mr S. Palmer, author of The General
“The firft application which was made to the Univ. by Fames and Comp. for printing Bibles and Comm. Pr. books by blocks in- ftead of fingle types was early in the y. 1730, for I find that a fyn- dicate was appointed to treat with him 6 Fw. in that year; who being ftrangers to the bufinefs of printing made fo favourable a reprefentation to. the fenate that a leafe was fealed to him 23 Apr. 1731. in their attempt to fucceed the partners funk a pretty large fum of money; but I do not find that they completed any one book by dlck. one I think was carried on for fome time but finifhed by types at laft. after fruitlefs attempts for three or four years the thing was given up, and application was made to The Univ. for a frefh ~ leafe to print bibles, &c. in the common way 23 Sept. 1735. and this was refufed.—I do not find what rent was paid. if any it was very inconfiderable: for when I was in office in the y. 1738 finding a large arrear due, by ufing fome threatning expreffions I recovered ££. 50. took up the old leafe, and fo had done with them.”
“One Fenner was the principal perfon concerned, and the pro- jeCtor of the fcheme: ames was an architect and lived at Green- wich, and was taken into the partnerfhip as having money. Fenner died infolvent in or before the y. 1735, for it was his widow who applied for a new leafe in that year.
““Thefe Sir, are all the particulars which I can recollect relating to’ this\afiair.””*****
In refpect to the defign itfelf we may obferve that the fears of the printers were groundlefs and the villainy of the workmen fuperero- gatory: for had the enterprize at firft fucceeded it muft foon have funk under it’s own burthen. the difficulty of botching an error which having efcaped the eye of the moft vigilant corrector might cafually be ftumbled upon by an abecedarian; the great weight of metal and dead money; the capacity of ftowage for that metal; the care which muft be taken in repofiting the plates, as an ill fated ftroke would fpoil a whole page; the more than ordinary wear of the exterior letters of the form which would fpoil a whole page like- wife; the conclufive bomb-dab of a finifhed prefs-man at the end of his beat, fo notorioufly deftructive to a ftanding job, would all con- tribute to render a defign abortive which hath only this advantage to boaft, that a man may be a printer without a fingle letter in his houfe. add to this that the caf being three defcents removed from it’s parent the fharpnefs of the letter is obtunded, and the beauty
of
62 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
General bift. of Printing, and laftly in that of the two Mr ‘fames’s, and was a part of the priory of S. Barth. and
of the prototype is vanifhed away. as a fpecimen we fubjoin the page of Sa/luft which has been before mentioned.
CATILINA.} Cap. XIX-} gg
la icgibus ambitus interrogati poenas dederant. Pof pantloCatilina, pecuniarumtrepetandarnm reus, prohibitus erat confulatum petere; quod intra Iegitimos dies profitcri nequiverit. Erac codem tempore Cn. Pifo, adolefcens nobilis, fumme andaciz, egens, factiofus,. quem ad perturbandam rempublicam inopia atque mali mores ftimulabant. Cum hoc Catilina & Au- tronius, confiliocommunicato, parabant in Ca- pitclio Kalendis Januariis L. Cottam. & X, Torquarum Confules interficere 5 ipfi, fafcibus correptis, Pifonem cum exercitu ad obtinen- das duas Hifpanias mittere. Ea re cognita rur- fus, in Nonas Februarias confilium cxdis tran- ftulerant. Jam tum non Confulibus modo, fed plerifque Senatoribus. perniciem machinaban- tur. Quod niCatalina maturafict pro curia fig- num fociis dare ; eo dic, poft conditam urbem De She sone pefumnm facinus patratum foret- Quia nondum frequentes armati convenerant; €a res confilium diremit.
XIX. Poftea Pifo in citeriorem Hip aniana Guster proPretore miffus eft, adnitente Craf= fo ; quod eum infeftum inimicum Cn. Pompeio- cognoverat. Neqne tamen fenatus provinciam. invitus dederat: quippe feédum hominem are publica procul efle volebat: fimul,, quia boni quam plures prefidium in eo purabantz & jam tum potentia Cn. Pompeii formidolofa erate Scd is Pifo, in provinciam ab equitibus Hifpa- nis, ques in exercitu dadtabar, iter .faciens, occifus eft. Stnr, qui ita dicunt, imperia ejus. injufta, faperba, cradelia, barbares nequivifle, pati: alii autem, equites illos, Cn. Pompeii ve- teres Hiofque clicnres, yoluntace ejys age be
aa
Gadd after he had obtained his pardon followed his bufinefs for fome time as a journey-man with Mr Bettenham. afterwards he com- menced mafter for himfelf at ahoufe in Denmark-court in the Strand. unfuccefsful there he privately {hipped off himfelf and his materials for the other fide of the 4H/antic; and, whether it were that having efcaped the one fatality he met with the other we know not; but nothing hath fince been heard of him.
AND FOUNDERIES. 63
and in this houfe wrought formerly as a journey- man with Mr Palmer, a gentleman well known fince in the philofophical world, Dr Benj. Franklyn of Phila- delphia.
The late Mr Caston, the Corypheus of Letter- founders, was not trained to this bufinefs. he was ori- ginally a Gun-lock-graver, and was taken from that in- ftrument to an inftrument of very different tendency, the propagation of the Chriftian faith.
In the y.1720 the London Soc. for promoting Chriftian Knowledge in confequence of a reprefentation made by Mr Salomon Negri a native of Dama/fcus in Syria, well {killed in the orienta] languages, who had been _ profeffor of 4rad. in places of note for a great part of his life, deemed it expedient to print for the ufe of the Eaffernchurches the N. Jef. and P/a/t. in the Arab. language for the benefit of the poor Chriftians in Pa/- eftine, Syria, Mefopotamia, Arabia and Egypt; the con- ‘futution of which countries allows of no printing: and Mr Caflon was pitched upon to cut a fount.
He cut the Eng. Arabic which we fee in his f{peci- mens. this was after the y. 1721 and before the y. 1726. in which latter y. the Soc. had procured “two new founts of Arab. types, viz. One from the Polyg/ott ma-
trices; and Another of a leffer fize called an Eng. body, ©
-made on purpofe for their fervice; and 6250 pfalters printed from a copy fent from /eppo, as approved by the patriarch of 4utioch.”* the fount which the Soc. {peak of firft was letter cast from Mr Grover’s ma- trices, now ours: the fecond which they mention was letter caft from the fount cut by Mr. Caf.
Mr Caflon after he had finifhed his 4rad. fount cut the letters of his own name in pica Rom. and placed the name at the bottom ofafpec. of the 4rab.and Mr Palmer
* Extract of feveral letters relating to this defign, Lond. 1726. 8vo.
feeing
1720;
64 OF ENGLISH FOUNDERS,
feeing this name advifed Mr Caf. to cut the whole fount of pica. Mr Ca/l. did fo; and as the performance exceeded the letter of the other founders of the time, Mr Palmer, whofe circumftances required credit with thofe which by this advice was now obftructed, re- pented the advice and difcouraged Mr Ca/l. from any further progrefs.
Mr Ca/l. difgufted applied to Mr Bowyer, and was encouraged to proceed by Mr Bowyer and Mr Betten- ham (the laft of whom died 6 Febr. 1774, feré centena- rius Janeque mentis et memoria) and Mr Ca/l. always acknowledged Mr Bowyer as his mafter, and that he
~ had taught him the art: in which art Mr Ca/. arrived
1730.
to that perfection that we may without fear of contra- diction affert that a fairer fpecimen than his cannot be found in Europe; that 1s, Not in the World.
Mr Caflon’s firft foundery was in a garret in Helmet- row: afterwards he removed into /ron-monger-row: and about 37 years ago into Chi/we/-ftreet (all in the parifh of St. Luke, Midd.) where the foundery now is and an account fhall be given of it hereafter.
He died 23 Fan. 1766 aged 74, in the commiffion of the peace for the county of Middl. leaving behind him the character of a tender Mafter, and an honeft, friendly and worthy man. he is buried in the church- yard of S. Luke.
Mr ‘facob Ilive was a printer, and the fon of a printer, but he applied himfelf to Letter-cutting, and carried ona Foundery and a Printing-Houfe together. in the y. 1734he lived in A/der/eare-fireet, over againtt Alder/eate-coffee-houfe. afterwards when Ca/afio was to be re-printed under the infpection of Mr Romaine or of Mr Lutzena a Portuguese Jew who corrected the Hebr. as we ourfelves did fometimes another part of the work, he removed to Lond. houfe (the habitation
of
AND FOUNDERIES. 65
of the late Dr Rawlinfon) on the oppofite fide of the way, where he was employed by the publifhers of that work. this was in the y. 1746. but his foundery had been purchafed 3 Fu/. 1740 by Mr Fob. Fames. it lies in the boxes named Fugge, and has undergone very little alteration ™.
In the year 1751 Mr Ihve publifhed a pretended tranflation of The book of Jafher {aid to have been made by one d/cuin of Britain. the account given of the tran{- lation is full of glaring abfurdities: but of the pub- lication this we can fay from the information of the Only-One who 1s capable of informing us, becaufe the bufinefs was a fecret between the Two: Mr I/ive in the night-time had conftantly an Hedr. bible before him (/ed qu. de hoc) and cafes in his clofet. he produced the copy for 7a/ber, and it was compofed in private,and the forms worked off in the night-time in a private prefs- room by thefe Two after the men of the Printing-houfe had left their work. — Mr. [ive was an expeditious compofitor though he worked in a night-gown and {wept his cafe so pye with the fleeves. he knew the let- ters by the touch.
Mr ‘fobn Fames fucceeded his father in the y. 1736 1736.
* This it was; eRe OCCIDENTALS 1734s
all.
GREEK, nonp. 200. another 80 J. thefe fets of matrices are in fome other hands. they never came to Mr Fames although he paid for thern.
rom. 2